Humanverse

Deshawn vs Desteny

American parents have registered 17,257 Deshawns since 1880, against 1,603 Destenys. Deshawn is still ahead, with 100 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Deshawn against Desteny, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Deshawn Desteny

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

Deshawn has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1962 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2005, when Deshawn had 381 and Desteny had 88.

Side by side

  Deshawn Desteny
Total US births 17,2571,603
Most in one year 591110
Babies in 2025 1006
Estimated living today 17,0001,600
Median age today 2721
Peak year 19972006
Best rank 411th boys1,846th girls
Rank in 2025 1,663rd13,208th
First recorded 19621983
Girls / boys 1,183 / 16,0741,603 / 0

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 Deshawns alive today are over 27; half the Destenys are over 21. That is 6 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: Deshawn and Desteny.