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Stanley vs Starlyn

American parents have registered 302,862 Stanleys since 1880, against 759 Starlyns. Stanley is still ahead, with 278 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Stanley Starlyn

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

Stanley has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2012, when Stanley had 315 and Starlyn had 17.

Side by side

  Stanley Starlyn
Total US births 302,862759
Most in one year 6,47221
Babies in 2025 2789
Estimated living today 126,000720
Median age today 6629
Peak year 19542007
Best rank 58th boys6,323rd girls
Rank in 2025 863rd10,107th
First recorded 18801946
Girls / boys 1,437 / 301,425743 / 16

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 Stanleys alive today are over 66; half the Starlyns are over 29. That is 37 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: Stanley and Starlyn.