Humanverse

Shane vs Sharry

American parents have registered 196,166 Shanes since 1880, against 953 Sharrys. Shane is still ahead, with 439 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shane Sharry

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

Of the 92 years in which either name was published, Shane for 81 years and Sharry for 11 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Shane Sharry
Total US births 196,166953
Most in one year 5,93139
Babies in 2025 439under 5
Estimated living today 184,000750
Median age today 3865
Peak year 19731949
Best rank 54th boys1,469th girls
Rank in 2025 635thunranked
First recorded 19331937
Girls / boys 3,583 / 192,583953 / 0

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 Sharrys alive today are over 65; half the Shanes are over 38. That is 27 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: Shane and Sharry.