Humanverse

Ethan vs Ethaniel

American parents have registered 488,144 Ethans since 1880, against 1,006 Ethaniels. Ethan is still ahead, with 7,859 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ethan against Ethaniel, 1880 to 2025 0 6k 12k 18k 24k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ethan Ethaniel

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

Ethan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1982, when Ethan had 713 and Ethaniel had 5.

Side by side

  Ethan Ethaniel
Total US births 488,1441,006
Most in one year 22,33661
Babies in 2025 7,85914
Estimated living today 479,000990
Median age today 1815
Peak year 20042009
Best rank 5th boys2,183rd boys
Rank in 2025 24th6,143rd
First recorded 18821982
Girls / boys 755 / 487,3890 / 1,006

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 Ethans alive today are over 18; half the Ethaniels are over 15. That is 3 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.

Both names abroad

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

Country Ethan Ethaniel
England and Wales 78,31132
France 76,405115

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: Ethan and Ethaniel.