Humanverse

Zebulan vs Zebulon

American parents have registered 2,149 Zebulons since 1880, against 102 Zebulans. Zebulon is still ahead, with 20 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Zebulan against Zebulon, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Zebulan Zebulon

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

Zebulon has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1891 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2012, when Zebulan had 6 and Zebulon had 19.

Side by side

  Zebulan Zebulon
Total US births 1022,149
Most in one year 16125
Babies in 2025 under 520
Estimated living today 1002,000
Median age today 3633
Peak year 19791979
Best rank 2,777th boys775th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked4,857th
First recorded 19781891
Girls / boys 0 / 1020 / 2,149

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 Zebulons are over 33. That is 3 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: Zebulan and Zebulon.