Humanverse

Kagan vs Kagen

American parents have registered 724 Kagans since 1880, against 541 Kagens. Kagan is still ahead, with 5 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kagan against Kagen, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kagan Kagen

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 40 years in which either name was published, Kagan for 31 years and Kagen for 9 years. The lead changed hands 12 times.

8 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Kagan Kagen
Total US births 724541
Most in one year 4141
Babies in 2025 5under 5
Estimated living today 710530
Median age today 2119
Peak year 20012007
Best rank 2,618th boys2,868th boys
Rank in 2025 12,008thunranked
First recorded 19781987
Girls / boys 73 / 65117 / 524

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 Kagans alive today are over 21; half the Kagens are over 19. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

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: Kagan and Kagen.