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Shalaya vs Shaun

American parents have registered 73,610 Shauns since 1880, against 595 Shalayas. Shaun is still ahead, with 79 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shalaya Shaun

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

Shaun has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1935 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2022, when Shalaya had 12 and Shaun had 128.

Side by side

  Shalaya Shaun
Total US births 59573,610
Most in one year 286,221
Babies in 2025 579
Estimated living today 59068,000
Median age today 2243
Peak year 20011978
Best rank 4,321st girls52nd boys
Rank in 2025 14,942nd1,942nd
First recorded 19801935
Girls / boys 595 / 03,129 / 70,481

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 Shauns alive today are over 43; half the Shalayas are over 22. That is 21 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: Shalaya and Shaun.