Gunars vs Gunnar
American parents have registered 18,178 Gunnars since 1880, against 13 Gunarses. Gunnar is still ahead, with 462 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Gunars Gunnar
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
Gunnar has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1893 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 1952, when Gunars had 8 and Gunnar had 8.
Side by side
| Gunars | Gunnar | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 13 | 18,178 |
| Most in one year | 8 | 830 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 462 |
| Estimated living today | 8 | 17,000 |
| Median age today | 73 | 14 |
| Peak year | 1952 | 2015 |
| Best rank | 2,875th boys | 388th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 612th |
| First recorded | 1952 | 1893 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 13 | 22 / 18,156 |
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 Gunarses alive today are over 73; half the Gunnars are over 14. That is 59 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: Gunars and Gunnar.