Humanverse

Landon vs Lanier

American parents have registered 187,785 Landons since 1880, against 1,217 Laniers. Landon is still ahead, with 2,868 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Landon against Lanier, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Landon Lanier

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

Landon has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1925, when Landon had 17 and Lanier had 13.

Side by side

  Landon Lanier
Total US births 187,7851,217
Most in one year 10,51024
Babies in 2025 2,86816
Estimated living today 184,000830
Median age today 1440
Peak year 20101952
Best rank 33rd boys1,749th boys
Rank in 2025 127th12,008th
First recorded 18821914
Girls / boys 1,182 / 186,603154 / 1,063

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 Laniers alive today are over 40; half the Landons are over 14. That is 26 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: Landon and Lanier.