Head to head · Boys' names
Chase vs Legend
#192 vs #193 in 2025 · Old French vs Latin roots · both stepping back from its peak
Chase is a whisker ahead (#192 vs #193 in 2025) and both are stepping back from its peak. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Chase leads 5 measures of 6; Legend leads 0.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Chase #936, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1890s: Chase #994, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1910s: Chase #2829, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1920s: Chase #3441, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1930s: Chase #3398, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1940s: Chase #2806, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1950s: Chase #2681, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1960s: Chase #1812, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1970s: Chase #805, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1980s: Chase #245, Legend — — Chase higher
- 1990s: Chase #96, Legend #3778 — Chase higher
- 2000s: Chase #78, Legend #2070 — Chase higher
- 2010s: Chase #86, Legend #527 — Chase higher
- 2020s: Chase #151, Legend #145 — Legend higher
Chase stood higher in 13 of 14 decades; Legend took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Chase | Legend |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #936 | — |
| 1890s | #994 | — |
| 1910s | #2829 | — |
| 1920s | #3441 | — |
| 1930s | #3398 | — |
| 1940s | #2806 | — |
| 1950s | #2681 | — |
| 1960s | #1812 | — |
| 1970s | #805 | — |
| 1980s | #245 | — |
| 1990s | #96 | #3778 |
| 2000s | #78 | #2070 |
| 2010s | #86 | #527 |
| 2020s | #151 | #145 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Chase
hunt, or hunting ground
From Old French chacier, 'to hunt', which gave Middle English chace — both the pursuit and the enclosed land set aside for it. As a surname it marked a huntsman.
chacier (Old French) → chace (Middle English) → Chase (English surname) → Chase (given name)
How it traveled
The root is Old French chacier, 'to hunt', carried into England after the Norman Conquest and worn down into Middle English chace. In medieval England a chase was also a place: unfenced hunting land held by a lord, a word still sitting in English place names like Cannock Chase and Chevy Chase, the latter familiar from the fifteenth-century border ballad.
Legend
a story handed down; someone famous enough to be storied
The word traces to Latin legere, "to read," through legenda, "things to be read" — first the texts, then the tales, then the people in them.
legere (Latin, 'to read') → legenda (medieval Latin, 'things to be read') → legende (Old French) → Legend
How it traveled
Legend is an English vocabulary word put to use as a given name, and its own history is long even if its life as a name is short. Latin legere, "to read," gave medieval Latin legenda for the saints' lives read aloud in religious houses; Old French passed it to English as legende in the fourteenth century.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Chase
CHAYSS
One syllable, ending in a clean s sound rather than a z. Spelling and sound match, in English and for most English-speaking countries.
- Chasey — Informal, mostly used within families and by close friends; rarely written down.
- Chay — Occasional spoken clipping; not established as a standalone given name in the US.
Legend
LEJ-uhnd
One pronunciation, and every English speaker already has it.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Chase if you want…
- a name with fewer syllablesChase is 1 syllable to Legend's 2
- plenty of nickname options2 recorded short forms — Chasey and Chay
- a name that feels very nowChase is stepping back from its peak
Choose Legend if you want…
- a name with more sound in itLegend runs 2 syllables, Chase 1
- a name that stays wholeno recorded short form for Legend
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 40% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 73% for Chase
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Chase
Strengths
- One syllable, spelled exactly as it sounds — almost never misspelled or mispronounced by an English speaker.
- A documented English surname with a traceable line back to Old French, so the history is real rather than guessed.
- Reads clearly as a given name in the US while still working like a surname, which pairs easily with most last names.
To consider
- It is also an everyday English verb, so the name will meet puns and playground jokes — cut to the chase, chasing after. Most bearers grow used to it early.
- In the US the word is bound up with one of the country's largest banks, which means the name shares its spelling with a brand seen on nearly every high street.
- There is little to shorten. Chase is already as short as it gets, so a child who wants a nickname will have to invent one.
Legend
Strengths
- Spelled exactly like the dictionary word, so it never has to be spelled out over the phone or corrected on a form.
- One settled pronunciation that no one has to be taught, in the US and in most English-speaking countries.
- An old word behind a new name: the Latin and Old French line back to "things to be read" is fully documented.
To consider
- No short form has taken hold. It is Legend or a family invention, which suits some households and frustrates others who like a nickname to fall back on.
- The word makes a claim, and people will notice it out loud — in introductions, on sports teams, in job interviews. Some bearers enjoy that; it is worth picturing at forty as well as at four.
- Its use as a name is very recent, so nearly everyone who carries it is still a child. That gives it a strong stamp of a particular moment, and the wave has already begun to ease.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Chase
73%chance Chase feels dated by 2040
Chase is coming down from a big peak (#61 in 2009). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
Legend
40%chance Legend feels dated by 2040
Legend sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Chase and Legend in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Chase and Legend?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- One-syllable names: said in a single beat
- Five-letter names, the comfortable middle
- Y2K names: the class of the 2000s
- all guides
Where Chase and Legend each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Chase or Legend — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Chase or Legend?
- Chase, in 2025: Chase ranked #192 with 1,904 babies; Legend ranked #193 with 1,862 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Chase or Legend?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Chase moved down 69 places; Legend moved down 66 places.
- Which is the older name, Chase or Legend?
- Chase entered the US charts in 1885; Legend entered the US charts in 1993. On the American record, Chase is the older name.
- How many people are named Chase and Legend?
- About 178,000 people named Chase are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 25,500 people named Legend are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Chases or Legends in the classroom?
- Chase will almost certainly be the only one in school. Legend will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Chase, Legend and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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