Humanverse

Lavena vs Lavern

American parents have registered 17,081 Laverns since 1880, against 1,223 Lavenas. Lavern is still ahead, with 26 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lavena against Lavern, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lavena Lavern

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

Lavern has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1892, when Lavena had 6 and Lavern had 7.

Side by side

  Lavena Lavern
Total US births 1,22317,081
Most in one year 32435
Babies in 2025 526
Estimated living today 5806,500
Median age today 5867
Peak year 19221924
Best rank 1,430th girls346th boys
Rank in 2025 14,942nd4,050th
First recorded 18921880
Girls / boys 1,223 / 06,845 / 10,236

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 Laverns alive today are over 67; half the Lavenas are over 58. That is 9 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: Lavena and Lavern.