Humanverse

Nanci vs Nannie

American parents have registered 25,580 Nannies since 1880, against 6,474 Nancis. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Nanci Nannie

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 136 years in which either name was published, Nanci for 69 years and Nannie for 67 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Nanci Nannie
Total US births 6,47425,580
Most in one year 222655
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 5,3002,400
Median age today 6280
Peak year 19531920
Best rank 594th girls258th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19281880
Girls / boys 6,474 / 025,560 / 20

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 Nannies alive today are over 80; half the Nancis are over 62. 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: Nanci and Nannie.