Sanford vs Santanna

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Sanford Santanna

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 146 years in which either name was published, Sanford for 114 years and Santanna for 32 years. The lead changed hands 12 times.

• 1880–1983 Sanford ahead
• 1984–2010 Santanna ahead, apart from one short spell
• 2022–2025 Sanford ahead

9 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

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 Sanfords alive today are over 67; half the Santannas are over 29. That is 38 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

• Sanford New York (3.0×), Hawaii (2.5×), Alabama (2.2×)
• Santanna Mississippi (18.6×), Louisiana (11.8×), Alabama (9.9×)

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

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