Humanverse

Shiloh vs Shirlyn

American parents have registered 24,531 Shilohs since 1880, against 389 Shirlyns. Shiloh is still ahead, with 2,318 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shiloh Shirlyn

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 83 years in which either name was published, Shiloh for 57 years and Shirlyn for 26 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Shiloh Shirlyn
Total US births 24,531389
Most in one year 2,31819
Babies in 2025 2,318under 5
Estimated living today 24,000320
Median age today 766
Peak year 20241951
Best rank 260th girls2,314th girls
Rank in 2025 281stunranked
First recorded 19691943
Girls / boys 15,117 / 9,414389 / 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 Shirlyns alive today are over 66; half the Shilohs are over 7. That is 59 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: Shiloh and Shirlyn.