Humanverse

Callaway vs Callum

American parents have registered 16,089 Callums since 1880, against 1,221 Callaways. Callum is still ahead, with 3,003 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Callaway against Callum, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Callaway Callum

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Callum has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1983 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1998, when Callaway had 15 and Callum had 58.

Side by side

  Callaway Callum
Total US births 1,22116,089
Most in one year 1813,003
Babies in 2025 1813,003
Estimated living today 1,20016,000
Median age today 53
Peak year 20252025
Best rank 1,808th boys118th boys
Rank in 2025 1,808th118th
First recorded 19941983
Girls / boys 582 / 63938 / 16,051

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Callaways alive today are over 5; half the Callums are over 3. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Callaway and Callum.