Humanverse

Gatha vs Gatlin

American parents have registered 4,511 Gatlins since 1880, against 584 Gathas. Gatlin is still ahead, with 217 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gatha against Gatlin, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gatha Gatlin

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 101 years in which either name was published, Gatha for 57 years and Gatlin for 44 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Gatha Gatlin
Total US births 5844,511
Most in one year 21368
Babies in 2025 under 5217
Estimated living today 1704,500
Median age today 767
Peak year 19232022
Best rank 1,895th girls725th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,026th
First recorded 19011981
Girls / boys 584 / 040 / 4,471

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 Gathas alive today are over 76; half the Gatlins are over 7. That is 69 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

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