Humanverse

Shawna vs Shaylyn

American parents have registered 45,640 Shawnas since 1880, against 2,109 Shaylyns. Shawna is still ahead, with 9 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shawna against Shaylyn, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shawna Shaylyn

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 84 years in which either name was published, Shawna for 83 years and Shaylyn for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Shawna Shaylyn
Total US births 45,6402,109
Most in one year 2,09088
Babies in 2025 99
Estimated living today 43,0002,100
Median age today 4526
Peak year 19771993
Best rank 139th girls1,694th girls
Rank in 2025 10,107th10,107th
First recorded 19411976
Girls / boys 45,531 / 1092,109 / 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 Shawnas alive today are over 45; half the Shaylyns are over 26. That is 19 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: Shawna and Shaylyn.