Humanverse

Tango vs Tanner

American parents have registered 100,166 Tanners since 1880, against 33 Tangos. Tanner is still ahead, with 684 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tango against Tanner, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tango Tanner

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 73 years in which either name was published, Tanner for 72 years and Tango for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Tango Tanner
Total US births 33100,166
Most in one year 244,827
Babies in 2025 under 5684
Estimated living today 3098,000
Median age today 5424
Peak year 19711998
Best rank 2,874th girls82nd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked475th
First recorded 19711913
Girls / boys 33 / 02,541 / 97,625

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 Tangos alive today are over 54; half the Tanners are over 24. That is 30 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: Tango and Tanner.