Humanverse

Railynn vs Rain

American parents have registered 4,806 Rains since 1880, against 1,008 Railynns. Rain is still ahead, with 275 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Railynn against Rain, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Railynn Rain

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

Rain has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1956 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2017, when Railynn had 68 and Rain had 136.

Side by side

  Railynn Rain
Total US births 1,0084,806
Most in one year 80275
Babies in 2025 49275
Estimated living today 1,0004,800
Median age today 812
Peak year 20182023
Best rank 2,275th girls1,212th girls
Rank in 2025 3,211th1,235th
First recorded 20011956
Girls / boys 1,008 / 03,618 / 1,188

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 Rains alive today are over 12; half the Railynns are over 8. That is 4 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: Railynn and Rain.