9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data

Vaughn vs Michael

How Vaughn and Michael compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Vaughn

Male · Celtic

Meaning: Small

Michael

Male · Hebrew

Meaning: Gift From God

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Vaughn (boys) vs Michael (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Vaughn Michael
Peak year (most US births) 2007 — 306 boys 1957 — 92,786 boys
Peak rank #739 #1
Most recent rank (2017) #963 (216 births) #21 (8,094 births)
Total US births since 1880 4,212 4,426,620
Last 10 years (2008–2017) 2,411 101,773

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Michael reached 92,786 US births in 1957 — 92,480 more than Vaughn's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Vaughn — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Colorado #697 55
2 Wisconsin #698 35
3 Utah #712 28
4 Virginia #740 27
5 Michigan #744 64

Michael — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 New Jersey #5 3,719
2 New York #7 7,385
3 Pennsylvania #9 4,259
4 Connecticut #10 1,324
5 Florida #11 6,385

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →