Humanverse

Fanita vs Fanta

American parents have registered 1,168 Fantas since 1880, against 33 Fanitas. Fanta is still ahead, with 30 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Fanita against Fanta, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Fanita Fanta

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 50 years in which either name was published, Fanta for 48 years and Fanita for 2 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Fanita Fanta
Total US births 331,168
Most in one year 2166
Babies in 2025 under 530
Estimated living today 301,200
Median age today 6019
Peak year 19651977
Best rank 2,684th girls1,609th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked4,546th
First recorded 19651977
Girls / boys 33 / 01,168 / 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 Fanitas alive today are over 60; half the Fantas are over 19. That is 41 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: Fanita and Fanta.