Humanverse

Shalee vs Shane

American parents have registered 196,166 Shanes since 1880, against 1,074 Shalees. Shane is still ahead, with 439 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shalee 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 1993, when Shalee had 61 and Shane had 4,500.

Side by side

  Shalee Shane
Total US births 1,074196,166
Most in one year 615,931
Babies in 2025 under 5439
Estimated living today 1,000184,000
Median age today 3338
Peak year 19931973
Best rank 2,176th girls54th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked635th
First recorded 19681933
Girls / boys 1,074 / 03,583 / 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 Shanes alive today are over 38; half the Shalees are over 33. That is 5 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: Shalee and Shane.