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Shaherah vs Shannon

American parents have registered 348,161 Shannons since 1880, against 24 Shaherahs. Shannon is still ahead, with 116 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shaherah against Shannon, 1880 to 2025 0 5k 10k 15k 20k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shaherah Shannon

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

Shannon has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1881 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1979, when Shaherah had 19 and Shannon had 12,009.

Side by side

  Shaherah Shannon
Total US births 24348,161
Most in one year 1916,118
Babies in 2025 under 5116
Estimated living today 20326,000
Median age today 4647
Peak year 19791970
Best rank 3,903rd girls22nd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,387th
First recorded 19791881
Girls / boys 24 / 0295,782 / 52,379

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.

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