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Zebadiah vs Zebulan

American parents have registered 1,112 Zebadiahs since 1880, against 102 Zebulans. Zebadiah is still ahead, with 31 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Zebadiah against Zebulan, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Zebadiah Zebulan

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

Zebadiah has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1974 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1978, when Zebadiah had 15 and Zebulan had 11.

Side by side

  Zebadiah Zebulan
Total US births 1,112102
Most in one year 4916
Babies in 2025 31under 5
Estimated living today 1,100100
Median age today 2436
Peak year 20011979
Best rank 2,117th boys2,777th boys
Rank in 2025 3,583rdunranked
First recorded 19741978
Girls / boys 0 / 1,1120 / 102

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 Zebulans alive today are over 36; half the Zebadiahs are over 24. That is 12 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: Zebadiah and Zebulan.