Humanverse

Lana vs Langley

American parents have registered 57,449 Lanas since 1880, against 833 Langleys. Lana is still ahead, with 768 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lana against Langley, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lana Langley

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

Lana has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1885 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1907, when Lana had 6 and Langley had 5.

Side by side

  Lana Langley
Total US births 57,449833
Most in one year 1,47045
Babies in 2025 76818
Estimated living today 49,000770
Median age today 4813
Peak year 19482015
Best rank 188th girls3,915th girls
Rank in 2025 406th6,325th
First recorded 18851907
Girls / boys 57,434 / 15670 / 163

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 Lanas alive today are over 48; half the Langleys are over 13. That is 35 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: Lana and Langley.