Humanverse

December vs Declan

American parents have registered 58,950 Declans since 1880, against 1,619 Decembers. Declan is still ahead, with 2,587 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

December Declan

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 71 years in which either name was published, Declan for 50 years and December for 21 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  December Declan
Total US births 1,61958,950
Most in one year 464,007
Babies in 2025 212,587
Estimated living today 1,60058,000
Median age today 238
Peak year 20122019
Best rank 3,464th girls95th boys
Rank in 2025 5,722nd139th
First recorded 19601951
Girls / boys 1,608 / 11403 / 58,547

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 Decembers alive today are over 23; half the Declans are over 8. That is 15 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: December and Declan.