Humanverse

Natavia vs Nathan

American parents have registered 589,271 Nathans since 1880, against 590 Natavias. Nathan is still ahead, with 4,980 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Natavia 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 2006, when Natavia had 36 and Nathan had 14,300.

Side by side

  Natavia Nathan
Total US births 590589,271
Most in one year 3614,696
Babies in 2025 under 54,980
Estimated living today 580540,000
Median age today 2427
Peak year 20062004
Best rank 4,073rd girls20th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked63rd
First recorded 19781880
Girls / boys 590 / 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 Natavias are over 24. That is 3 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: Natavia and Nathan.