Humanverse

Shadrick vs Shane

American parents have registered 196,166 Shanes since 1880, against 540 Shadricks. Shane is still ahead, with 439 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shadrick against Shane, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shadrick Shane

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

Shane has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1933 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1933, when Shadrick had 5 and Shane had 6.

Side by side

  Shadrick Shane
Total US births 540196,166
Most in one year 315,931
Babies in 2025 under 5439
Estimated living today 500184,000
Median age today 4338
Peak year 19761973
Best rank 1,677th boys54th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked635th
First recorded 19331933
Girls / boys 0 / 5403,583 / 192,583

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 Shadricks alive today are over 43; half the Shanes are over 38. That is 5 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: Shadrick and Shane.