Humanverse

Nathan vs Natia

American parents have registered 589,271 Nathans since 1880, against 754 Natias. Nathan is still ahead, with 4,980 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Nathan Natia

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 1991, when Nathan had 10,528 and Natia had 31.

Side by side

  Nathan Natia
Total US births 589,271754
Most in one year 14,69631
Babies in 2025 4,980under 5
Estimated living today 540,000740
Median age today 2731
Peak year 20041991
Best rank 20th boys3,443rd girls
Rank in 2025 63rdunranked
First recorded 18801974
Girls / boys 1,774 / 587,497754 / 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 Natias alive today are over 31; half the Nathans are over 27. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Nathan Natia
France 123,2755

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Nathan and Natia.