Humanverse

Shane vs Shasta

American parents have registered 196,166 Shanes since 1880, against 4,340 Shastas. Shane is still ahead, with 439 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shane Shasta

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 91 years and Shasta for 1 year. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Shane Shasta
Total US births 196,1664,340
Most in one year 5,931235
Babies in 2025 4395
Estimated living today 184,0004,200
Median age today 3841
Peak year 19731979
Best rank 54th boys716th girls
Rank in 2025 635th14,942nd
First recorded 19331926
Girls / boys 3,583 / 192,5834,320 / 20

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 Shastas alive today are over 41; half the Shanes are over 38. That is 3 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: Shane and Shasta.