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Lane vs Lanora

American parents have registered 52,177 Lanes since 1880, against 2,245 Lanoras. Lane is still ahead, with 1,495 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Lane Lanora

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 129 years in which either name was published, Lane for 123 years and Lanora for 6 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Lane Lanora
Total US births 52,1772,245
Most in one year 1,50540
Babies in 2025 1,49525
Estimated living today 48,0001,400
Median age today 1852
Peak year 20191969
Best rank 258th boys1,980th girls
Rank in 2025 250th5,099th
First recorded 18811888
Girls / boys 4,615 / 47,5622,245 / 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 Lanoras alive today are over 52; half the Lanes are over 18. That is 34 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: Lane and Lanora.