Humanverse

Shannon vs Shauntel

American parents have registered 348,161 Shannons since 1880, against 923 Shauntels. Shannon is still ahead, with 116 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shannon Shauntel

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 2015, when Shannon had 331 and Shauntel had 5.

Side by side

  Shannon Shauntel
Total US births 348,161923
Most in one year 16,11842
Babies in 2025 116under 5
Estimated living today 326,000890
Median age today 4739
Peak year 19701983
Best rank 22nd girls2,272nd girls
Rank in 2025 2,387thunranked
First recorded 18811968
Girls / boys 295,782 / 52,379913 / 10

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 Shauntels are over 39. That is 8 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: Shannon and Shauntel.