Humanverse

Hani vs Hansel

American parents have registered 3,636 Hansels since 1880, against 946 Hanis. Hansel is still ahead, with 103 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Hani against Hansel, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Hani Hansel

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 115 years in which either name was published, Hansel for 113 years and Hani for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Hani Hansel
Total US births 9463,636
Most in one year 55134
Babies in 2025 27103
Estimated living today 9202,500
Median age today 1713
Peak year 20242021
Best rank 4,200th boys1,372nd boys
Rank in 2025 6,803rd1,634th
First recorded 19721905
Girls / boys 214 / 7325 / 3,631

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 Hanis alive today are over 17; half the Hansels are over 13. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Hani Hansel
England and Wales 37682
France 43015

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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