Humanverse

Regan vs Reghan

American parents have registered 20,053 Regans since 1880, against 895 Reghans. Regan is still ahead, with 97 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Regan against Reghan, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Regan Reghan

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

Regan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1920 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2009, when Regan had 461 and Reghan had 47.

Side by side

  Regan Reghan
Total US births 20,053895
Most in one year 81054
Babies in 2025 97under 5
Estimated living today 19,000890
Median age today 2420
Peak year 20012005
Best rank 391st girls2,969th girls
Rank in 2025 2,276thunranked
First recorded 19201983
Girls / boys 16,307 / 3,746895 / 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 Regans alive today are over 24; half the Reghans are over 20. 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: Regan and Reghan.