Humanverse

Gay vs Gayron

American parents have registered 19,367 Gays since 1880, against 11 Gayrons. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gay against Gayron, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gay Gayron

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

Gay has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1883 to 1982. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1939, when Gay had 373 and Gayron had 6.

Side by side

  Gay Gayron
Total US births 19,36711
Most in one year 6926
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 12,0004
Median age today 7077
Peak year 19591939
Best rank 362nd girls3,113th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18831939
Girls / boys 17,985 / 1,3820 / 11

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 Gayrons alive today are over 77; half the Gays are over 70. That is 7 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: Gay and Gayron.