Humanverse

Reagan vs Reather

American parents have registered 73,580 Reagans since 1880, against 917 Reathers. Reagan is still ahead, with 1,342 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Reagan against Reather, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Reagan Reather

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 124 years in which either name was published, Reagan for 84 years and Reather for 40 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Reagan Reather
Total US births 73,580917
Most in one year 3,32237
Babies in 2025 1,342under 5
Estimated living today 73,000200
Median age today 1377
Peak year 20161919
Best rank 98th girls1,242nd girls
Rank in 2025 248thunranked
First recorded 19131899
Girls / boys 65,739 / 7,841912 / 5

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 Reathers alive today are over 77; half the Reagans are over 13. That is 64 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: Reagan and Reather.