Humanverse

Rance vs Randall

American parents have registered 199,745 Randalls since 1880, against 3,002 Rances. Randall is still ahead, with 117 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rance against Randall, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rance Randall

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

Randall 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 1890, when Rance had 6 and Randall had 6.

Side by side

  Rance Randall
Total US births 3,002199,745
Most in one year 577,200
Babies in 2025 10117
Estimated living today 2,300151,000
Median age today 4461
Peak year 19621960
Best rank 1,013th boys59th boys
Rank in 2025 7,679th1,499th
First recorded 18821880
Girls / boys 0 / 3,0021,153 / 198,592

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 Randalls alive today are over 61; half the Rances are over 44. That is 17 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: Rance and Randall.