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Railyn vs Rainey

American parents have registered 2,632 Raineys since 1880, against 909 Railyns. Rainey is still ahead, with 76 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Railyn against Rainey, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Railyn Rainey

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

Of the 103 years in which either name was published, Rainey for 97 years and Railyn for 6 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Railyn Rainey
Total US births 9092,632
Most in one year 6490
Babies in 2025 3676
Estimated living today 9002,300
Median age today 1019
Peak year 20132022
Best rank 2,706th girls2,123rd girls
Rank in 2025 4,661st2,368th
First recorded 19941901
Girls / boys 896 / 132,182 / 450

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 Raineys alive today are over 19; half the Railyns are over 10. 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: Railyn and Rainey.