Humanverse

Rance vs Randell

American parents have registered 10,159 Randells since 1880, against 3,002 Rances. Randell is still ahead, with 12 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rance against Randell, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rance Randell

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 117 years in which either name was published, Randell for 101 years and Rance for 16 years. The lead changed hands 15 times.

8 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Rance Randell
Total US births 3,00210,159
Most in one year 57321
Babies in 2025 1012
Estimated living today 2,3007,700
Median age today 4458
Peak year 19621960
Best rank 1,013th boys450th boys
Rank in 2025 7,679th6,803rd
First recorded 18821912
Girls / boys 0 / 3,002148 / 10,011

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 Randells alive today are over 58; half the Rances are over 44. That is 14 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 Randell.