Humanverse

Shasta vs Shaun

American parents have registered 73,610 Shauns since 1880, against 4,340 Shastas. Shaun is still ahead, with 79 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shasta against Shaun, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shasta Shaun

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

Side by side

  Shasta Shaun
Total US births 4,34073,610
Most in one year 2356,221
Babies in 2025 579
Estimated living today 4,20068,000
Median age today 4143
Peak year 19791978
Best rank 716th girls52nd boys
Rank in 2025 14,942nd1,942nd
First recorded 19261935
Girls / boys 4,320 / 203,129 / 70,481

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 Shauns alive today are over 43; half the Shastas are over 41. That is 2 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: Shasta and Shaun.