Laney vs Lanier
American parents have registered 14,360 Laneys since 1880, against 1,217 Laniers. Laney is still ahead, with 421 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Laney 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
Of the 119 years in which either name was published, Laney for 92 years and Lanier for 27 years. The lead changed hands 28 times.
- 1883–1910 Laney ahead
- 1923–1945 Lanier ahead, apart from 3 short spells
- 1946–2025 Laney ahead, apart from 3 short spells
20 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Laney | Lanier | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 14,360 | 1,217 |
| Most in one year | 640 | 24 |
| Babies in 2025 | 421 | 16 |
| Estimated living today | 14,000 | 830 |
| Median age today | 15 | 40 |
| Peak year | 2006 | 1952 |
| Best rank | 486th girls | 1,749th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 673rd | 12,008th |
| First recorded | 1883 | 1914 |
| Girls / boys | 14,024 / 336 | 154 / 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 Laneys are over 15. That is 25 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: Laney and Lanier.