9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data

Zane vs Oliver

How Zane and Oliver 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

Zane

Male · English

Meaning: Variant Of John. American Western Writer Zane Grey.

Oliver

Male · French

Meaning: Legend Name

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Zane (boys) vs Oliver (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 Zane Oliver
Peak year (most US births) 2018 — 2,031 boys 2024 — 15,343 boys
Peak rank #199 #3
Most recent rank (2025) #324 (1,051 births) #3 (14,939 births)
Total US births since 1880 39,660 212,737
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 15,035 142,959

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Oliver reached 15,343 US births in 2024 — 13,312 more than Zane's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Zane births Oliver births
2000 Zane 1,368 978
2004 Oliver 1,455 1,491

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.

Zane — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Hawaii #117 108
2 Montana #159 56
3 North Dakota #170 73
4 West Virginia #180 124
5 Delaware #182 29

Oliver — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Oregon #1 2,043
2 Iowa #1 1,836
3 Utah #1 2,587
4 Idaho #1 1,137
5 Wisconsin #1 2,988

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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 →