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Laney vs Lanise

American parents have registered 14,360 Laneys since 1880, against 603 Lanises. Laney is still ahead, with 421 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Laney against Lanise, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Laney Lanise

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 115 years in which either name was published, Laney for 111 years and Lanise for 4 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Laney Lanise
Total US births 14,360603
Most in one year 64023
Babies in 2025 421under 5
Estimated living today 14,000580
Median age today 1539
Peak year 20061972
Best rank 486th girls2,903rd girls
Rank in 2025 673rdunranked
First recorded 18831958
Girls / boys 14,024 / 336603 / 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 Lanises alive today are over 39; half the Laneys are over 15. That is 24 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: Laney and Lanise.