Humanverse

Charlene vs Chaston

American parents have registered 134,111 Charlenes since 1880, against 590 Chastons. Charlene is still ahead, with 99 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Charlene against Chaston, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Charlene Chaston

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

Charlene has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1888 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2013, when Charlene had 116 and Chaston had 18.

Side by side

  Charlene Chaston
Total US births 134,111590
Most in one year 3,55723
Babies in 2025 998
Estimated living today 96,000580
Median age today 6521
Peak year 19521992
Best rank 106th girls2,909th boys
Rank in 2025 1,942nd8,910th
First recorded 18881975
Girls / boys 133,729 / 3820 / 590

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 Charlenes alive today are over 65; half the Chastons are over 21. That is 44 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: Charlene and Chaston.