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Calvin vs Calyn

American parents have registered 222,287 Calvins since 1880, against 820 Calyns. Calvin is still ahead, with 2,717 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Calvin against Calyn, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Calvin Calyn

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

Calvin has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1998, when Calvin had 1,639 and Calyn had 39.

Side by side

  Calvin Calyn
Total US births 222,287820
Most in one year 4,94040
Babies in 2025 2,7177
Estimated living today 148,000810
Median age today 3823
Peak year 19242002
Best rank 44th boys3,730th girls
Rank in 2025 132ndunranked
First recorded 18801981
Girls / boys 1,223 / 221,064727 / 93

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 Calvins alive today are over 38; half the Calyns are over 23. That is 15 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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