Humanverse

Shannon vs Shastelyn

American parents have registered 348,161 Shannons since 1880, against 35 Shastelyns. Shannon is still ahead, with 116 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shannon against Shastelyn, 1880 to 2025 0 5k 10k 15k 20k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shannon Shastelyn

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

Shannon has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1881 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2009, when Shannon had 687 and Shastelyn had 35.

Side by side

  Shannon Shastelyn
Total US births 348,16135
Most in one year 16,11835
Babies in 2025 116under 5
Estimated living today 326,00040
Median age today 4716
Peak year 19702009
Best rank 22nd girls4,269th girls
Rank in 2025 2,387thunranked
First recorded 18812009
Girls / boys 295,782 / 52,37935 / 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 Shannons alive today are over 47; half the Shastelyns are over 16. That is 31 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: Shannon and Shastelyn.