Humanverse

Nataley vs Nathan

American parents have registered 589,271 Nathans since 1880, against 619 Nataleys. Nathan is still ahead, with 4,980 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nataley against Nathan, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nataley Nathan

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

Nathan 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 2012, when Nataley had 41 and Nathan had 10,447.

Side by side

  Nataley Nathan
Total US births 619589,271
Most in one year 4114,696
Babies in 2025 under 54,980
Estimated living today 610540,000
Median age today 1627
Peak year 20122004
Best rank 3,782nd girls20th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked63rd
First recorded 19861880
Girls / boys 619 / 01,774 / 587,497

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 Nathans alive today are over 27; half the Nataleys are over 16. That is 11 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: Nataley and Nathan.