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Shandell vs Sharon

American parents have registered 726,130 Sharons since 1880, against 594 Shandells. Sharon is still ahead, with 179 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shandell against Sharon, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shandell Sharon

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

Sharon has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1900 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1991, when Shandell had 57 and Sharon had 1,005.

Side by side

  Shandell Sharon
Total US births 594726,130
Most in one year 5728,590
Babies in 2025 under 5179
Estimated living today 570545,000
Median age today 4169
Peak year 19911947
Best rank 2,420th girls9th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,250th
First recorded 19681900
Girls / boys 526 / 68723,024 / 3,106

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 Sharons alive today are over 69; half the Shandells are over 41. That is 28 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: Shandell and Sharon.