Humanverse

Wayland vs Waylon

American parents have registered 55,338 Waylons since 1880, against 4,220 Waylands. Waylon is still ahead, with 5,425 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Wayland against Waylon, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Wayland Waylon

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 123 years in which either name was published, Wayland for 64 years and Waylon for 59 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Wayland Waylon
Total US births 4,22055,338
Most in one year 645,425
Babies in 2025 615,425
Estimated living today 2,50054,000
Median age today 475
Peak year 20232025
Best rank 2,221st boys56th boys
Rank in 2025 2,284th56th
First recorded 18841911
Girls / boys 0 / 4,220290 / 55,048

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 Waylands alive today are over 47; half the Waylons are over 5. That is 42 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: Wayland and Waylon.