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Sanjaya vs Santiago

American parents have registered 103,965 Santiagos since 1880, against 49 Sanjayas. Santiago is still ahead, with 7,560 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Sanjaya Santiago

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

Santiago 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 Sanjaya had 41 and Santiago had 1,968.

Side by side

  Sanjaya Santiago
Total US births 49103,965
Most in one year 417,560
Babies in 2025 under 57,560
Estimated living today 5099,000
Median age today 188
Peak year 20072025
Best rank 3,687th boys26th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked26th
First recorded 20071880
Girls / boys 13 / 36137 / 103,828

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 Sanjayas alive today are over 18; half the Santiagos are over 8. That is 10 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: Sanjaya and Santiago.