Humanverse

Shonda vs Shontay

American parents have registered 7,444 Shondas since 1880, against 577 Shontays. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shonda against Shontay, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shonda Shontay

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

Shonda has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1954 to 2008. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1993, when Shonda had 38 and Shontay had 19.

Side by side

  Shonda Shontay
Total US births 7,444577
Most in one year 51044
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 7,000550
Median age today 5143
Peak year 19701977
Best rank 432nd girls2,307th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19541968
Girls / boys 7,444 / 0567 / 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 Shondas alive today are over 51; half the Shontays are over 43. 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: Shonda and Shontay.