Humanverse

Sean vs Seaver

American parents have registered 426,606 Seans since 1880, against 135 Seavers. Sean is still ahead, with 623 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sean against Seaver, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sean Seaver

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

Sean has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1925 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2017, when Sean had 1,481 and Seaver had 6.

Side by side

  Sean Seaver
Total US births 426,606135
Most in one year 12,07014
Babies in 2025 623under 5
Estimated living today 398,000130
Median age today 3730
Peak year 19901993
Best rank 37th boys4,227th boys
Rank in 2025 489thunranked
First recorded 19251988
Girls / boys 2,969 / 423,6370 / 135

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 Seans alive today are over 37; half the Seavers are over 30. That is 7 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Sean and Seaver.