Humanverse

Gay vs Gaylan

American parents have registered 19,367 Gays since 1880, against 527 Gaylans. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gay against Gaylan, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gay Gaylan

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 97 years in which either name was published, Gay for 96 years and Gaylan for 1 year. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Gay Gaylan
Total US births 19,367527
Most in one year 69237
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 12,000330
Median age today 7069
Peak year 19591952
Best rank 362nd girls1,347th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18831924
Girls / boys 17,985 / 1,38246 / 481

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.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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