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Gaylan vs Gayle

American parents have registered 66,308 Gayles since 1880, against 527 Gaylans. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gaylan against Gayle, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gaylan Gayle

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

Gayle has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1891 to 2024. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1995, when Gaylan had 8 and Gayle had 30.

Side by side

  Gaylan Gayle
Total US births 52766,308
Most in one year 372,929
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 33045,000
Median age today 6970
Peak year 19521951
Best rank 1,347th boys124th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19241891
Girls / boys 46 / 48161,357 / 4,951

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.

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