Humanverse

Laken vs Lakeya

American parents have registered 8,499 Lakens since 1880, against 1,211 Lakeyas. Laken is still ahead, with 376 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Laken against Lakeya, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Laken Lakeya

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 54 years in which either name was published, Laken for 41 years and Lakeya for 13 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Laken Lakeya
Total US births 8,4991,211
Most in one year 37673
Babies in 2025 376under 5
Estimated living today 8,4001,200
Median age today 1640
Peak year 20251981
Best rank 987th girls1,596th girls
Rank in 2025 987thunranked
First recorded 19841972
Girls / boys 6,240 / 2,2591,211 / 0

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 Lakeyas alive today are over 40; half the Lakens are over 16. That is 24 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: Laken and Lakeya.