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Natalyn vs Nathan

American parents have registered 589,271 Nathans since 1880, against 732 Natalyns. Nathan is still ahead, with 4,980 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Natalyn 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 1959, when Natalyn had 7 and Nathan had 1,387.

Side by side

  Natalyn Nathan
Total US births 732589,271
Most in one year 3814,696
Babies in 2025 84,980
Estimated living today 720540,000
Median age today 1427
Peak year 20132004
Best rank 3,918th girls20th boys
Rank in 2025 10,917th63rd
First recorded 19591880
Girls / boys 732 / 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 Natalyns are over 14. That is 13 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: Natalyn and Nathan.