Humanverse

Shonda vs Shontel

American parents have registered 7,444 Shondas since 1880, against 790 Shontels. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shonda against Shontel, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shonda Shontel

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 54 years in which either name was published, Shonda for 50 years and Shontel for 4 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Shonda Shontel
Total US births 7,444790
Most in one year 51045
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 7,000760
Median age today 5143
Peak year 19701972
Best rank 432nd girls1,856th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19541967
Girls / boys 7,444 / 0771 / 19

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 Shondas alive today are over 51; half the Shontels are over 43. That is 8 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: Shonda and Shontel.