Grayling vs Grayson
American parents have registered 133,184 Graysons since 1880, against 529 Graylings. Grayson is still ahead, with 5,857 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Grayling Grayson
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 118 years in which either name was published, Grayson for 111 years and Grayling for 7 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.
Side by side
| Grayling | Grayson | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 529 | 133,184 |
| Most in one year | 61 | 8,850 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 5,857 |
| Estimated living today | 400 | 131,000 |
| Median age today | 66 | 8 |
| Peak year | 1959 | 2017 |
| Best rank | 987th boys | 34th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 51st |
| First recorded | 1950 | 1905 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 529 | 4,190 / 128,994 |
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 Graylings alive today are over 66; half the Graysons are over 8. That is 58 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Grayling North Carolina (10.3×)
- Grayson Nevada (2.1×), North Carolina (1.9×), Utah (1.8×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Grayling and Grayson.