Humanverse

Tanner vs Tanyon

American parents have registered 100,166 Tanners since 1880, against 151 Tanyons. Tanner is still ahead, with 684 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tanner against Tanyon, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tanner Tanyon

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

Tanner has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1913 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2005, when Tanner had 3,146 and Tanyon had 24.

Side by side

  Tanner Tanyon
Total US births 100,166151
Most in one year 4,82724
Babies in 2025 684under 5
Estimated living today 98,000150
Median age today 2420
Peak year 19982005
Best rank 82nd boys3,815th boys
Rank in 2025 475thunranked
First recorded 19131997
Girls / boys 2,541 / 97,6250 / 151

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 Tanners alive today are over 24; half the Tanyons are over 20. That is 4 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: Tanner and Tanyon.