Humanverse

Shane vs Shastelyn

American parents have registered 196,166 Shanes since 1880, against 35 Shastelyns. Shane is still ahead, with 439 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shane against Shastelyn, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shane Shastelyn

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

Shane has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1933 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2009, when Shane had 2,165 and Shastelyn had 35.

Side by side

  Shane Shastelyn
Total US births 196,16635
Most in one year 5,93135
Babies in 2025 439under 5
Estimated living today 184,00040
Median age today 3816
Peak year 19732009
Best rank 54th boys4,269th girls
Rank in 2025 635thunranked
First recorded 19332009
Girls / boys 3,583 / 192,58335 / 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 Shanes alive today are over 38; half the Shastelyns are over 16. That is 22 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: Shane and Shastelyn.