Humanverse

Sandy vs Sanjaya

American parents have registered 79,530 Sandys since 1880, against 49 Sanjayas. Sandy is still ahead, with 67 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Sandy Sanjaya

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

Sandy 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 2007, when Sandy had 272 and Sanjaya had 41.

Side by side

  Sandy Sanjaya
Total US births 79,53049
Most in one year 3,82241
Babies in 2025 67under 5
Estimated living today 65,00050
Median age today 6018
Peak year 19602007
Best rank 126th girls3,687th boys
Rank in 2025 2,998thunranked
First recorded 18802007
Girls / boys 69,072 / 10,45813 / 36

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 Sandys alive today are over 60; half the Sanjayas are over 18. That is 42 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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