Humanverse

Sharon vs Shawntel

American parents have registered 726,130 Sharons since 1880, against 1,152 Shawntels. Sharon is still ahead, with 179 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Sharon Shawntel

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 1995, when Sharon had 827 and Shawntel had 63.

Side by side

  Sharon Shawntel
Total US births 726,1301,152
Most in one year 28,59063
Babies in 2025 179under 5
Estimated living today 545,0001,100
Median age today 6940
Peak year 19471995
Best rank 9th girls2,125th girls
Rank in 2025 1,250thunranked
First recorded 19001963
Girls / boys 723,024 / 3,1061,135 / 17

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 Shawntels are over 40. That is 29 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: Sharon and Shawntel.