Humanverse

Liam vs Liann

American parents have registered 359,085 Liams since 1880, against 503 Lianns. Liam is still ahead, with 20,846 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Liam against Liann, 1880 to 2025 0 6k 12k 18k 24k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Liam Liann

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 75 years in which either name was published, Liam for 73 years and Liann for 2 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Liam Liann
Total US births 359,085503
Most in one year 22,28818
Babies in 2025 20,846under 5
Estimated living today 356,000470
Median age today 839
Peak year 20241994
Best rank 1st boys5,249th girls
Rank in 2025 1stunranked
First recorded 19471951
Girls / boys 549 / 358,536503 / 0

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 Lianns alive today are over 39; half the Liams are over 8. That is 31 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Liam Liann
France 49,92015
Ireland 15,0613
Scotland 13,6143

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Liam and Liann.