Humanverse

Mahayla vs Mahlon

American parents have registered 5,683 Mahlons since 1880, against 925 Mahaylas. Mahlon is still ahead, with 44 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mahayla against Mahlon, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mahayla Mahlon

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 145 years in which either name was published, Mahlon for 139 years and Mahayla for 6 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Mahayla Mahlon
Total US births 9255,683
Most in one year 5795
Babies in 2025 1244
Estimated living today 9202,900
Median age today 1634
Peak year 20101919
Best rank 2,976th girls619th boys
Rank in 2025 8,362nd2,833rd
First recorded 19941880
Girls / boys 925 / 023 / 5,660

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 Mahlons alive today are over 34; half the Mahaylas are over 16. That is 18 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: Mahayla and Mahlon.