Humanverse

Devan vs Devy

American parents have registered 18,800 Devans since 1880, against 27 Devys. Devan is still ahead, with 53 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Devan against Devy, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Devan Devy

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

Of the 76 years in which either name was published, Devan for 75 years and Devy for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Devan Devy
Total US births 18,80027
Most in one year 95827
Babies in 2025 53under 5
Estimated living today 18,00020
Median age today 2865
Peak year 19941960
Best rank 367th boys2,246th girls
Rank in 2025 2,516thunranked
First recorded 19241960
Girls / boys 5,161 / 13,63927 / 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 Devys alive today are over 65; half the Devans are over 28. That is 37 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Devan Devy
France 275295

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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