Head to head · Girls' names
Logan vs Taylor
#402 vs #403 in 2025 · Scottish Gaelic vs Latin roots · both stepping back from its peak
Logan is a whisker ahead (#402 vs #403 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, Taylor leads 3 measures of 6; Logan leads 2.
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
- 1950s: Logan —, Taylor #5081 — Taylor higher
- 1960s: Logan —, Taylor #4542 — Taylor higher
- 1970s: Logan #5629, Taylor #2113 — Taylor higher
- 1980s: Logan #1245, Taylor #302 — Taylor higher
- 1990s: Logan #355, Taylor #14 — Taylor higher
- 2000s: Logan #384, Taylor #20 — Taylor higher
- 2010s: Logan #399, Taylor #80 — Taylor higher
- 2020s: Logan #358, Taylor #264 — Taylor higher
Taylor stood higher in every recorded decade — 8 of 8.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Logan | Taylor |
|---|---|---|
| 1950s | — | #5081 |
| 1960s | — | #4542 |
| 1970s | #5629 | #2113 |
| 1980s | #1245 | #302 |
| 1990s | #355 | #14 |
| 2000s | #384 | #20 |
| 2010s | #399 | #80 |
| 2020s | #358 | #264 |
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
Logan
little hollow
From Scottish Gaelic lagan, a diminutive of lag, 'hollow' or 'low-lying place' — the source of the place name Logan in Ayrshire, from which the surname comes. An unrelated Irish surname, Ó Leocháin, was also anglicized as Logan.
lag / lagan (Scottish Gaelic, 'hollow') → Logan (place, Ayrshire) → Logan (Scottish surname) → Logan (given name)
How it traveled
The oldest Logan is a piece of ground: a hollow in Ayrshire in southwest Scotland, whose name gave the local family theirs. Scottish and Ulster-Scots families carried the surname across the Atlantic, where it stuck to the map as well as to people — Mount Logan in the Yukon, Boston's Logan airport, the town of Logan, Utah.
Taylor
tailor — one who cuts cloth
From Old French tailleur, from Latin taliare, 'to cut'.
taliare (Latin) → tailleur (Old French) → taillour / Taylor (Middle English surname) → Taylor (given name)
How it traveled
Taylor is one of the great English occupational surnames, recorded from the medieval period onward for the tailor — the cutter of cloth — and it comes through Old French tailleur from the Latin verb taliare, 'to cut'. Like Riley, Parker and Harper, it made the ordinary English journey from trade to family name to given name, a pattern that has fed first names steadily for generations.
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
Logan
LOH-gan
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spelling gives the sound away, so it survives phone calls, roll calls and coffee cups without correction.
- Lo — The most common clipping, used among family and friends; works equally for a boy or a girl.
- Logie — Follows the Scottish -ie diminutive pattern; affectionate and household-level rather than public.
- Logs — A teammate-and-classmate nickname, informal and usually short-lived.
Taylor
TAY-lur
Stress on the first syllable. One pronunciation everywhere in English; the only real variation is how fully the final -er is sounded.
- Tay — The standard informal short form for either sex; also used on its own in casual writing.
- Tay-Tay — Playful, family-and-friends register; used mostly for girls.
- T — Initial-only nickname, common among schoolmates and teammates.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Logan if you want…
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 40% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 84% for Taylor
Choose Taylor if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsTaylor is stepping back from its peak
- a name that feels very nowTaylor is stepping back from its peak
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
Logan
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds and known everywhere in the English-speaking world — little risk of lifelong correcting.
- Charts in Canada, Scotland and England & Wales as well as the US, so it travels without translation.
- Short and complete on its own; it needs no nickname, though Lo and Logie are there if wanted.
To consider
- It reads male to most people on paper. A girl named Logan will meet forms and rosters that assume otherwise — manageable, but worth knowing in advance.
- The name rose sharply and is now easing back, so it clusters heavily around people in their teens and twenties. It may sound of a particular moment rather than timeless for a while.
- Very little to shorten. If you like a long name with a private nickname inside it, Logan gives you almost nothing to work with.
Taylor
Strengths
- Spelling and pronunciation are already known to everyone in English — no repeating, no correcting on the phone.
- Works for a boy or a girl with no change of form, and reads the same on a class list either way.
- A documented word history going back through Old French to Latin, unbroken and easy to explain to a child.
To consider
- The girls' side is much the larger one now, so a boy named Taylor will meet the occasional assumption on paper before people meet him. It is easily corrected, and the boys' use is genuinely older than the girls'.
- There are a great many adult Taylors, clustered in one broad generation — the name may read to some ears as belonging to grown-ups rather than to children, though that has ceased to be true of new classrooms.
- Tayler and Taylah exist as spellings, so the occasional form will come back needing a fix.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Logan
40%chance Logan feels dated by 2040
Logan 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.
Taylor
84%chance Taylor feels dated by 2040
Taylor is coming down from a big peak (#6 in 1994). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
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 Logan and Taylor 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 Logan and Taylor?
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.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap
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
- Names of the '80s and '90s, currently resting
- Classics hiding in plain sight
- Borrowed from the boys: names girls are winning
- all guides
Where Logan and Taylor each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Logan or Taylor — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Logan or Taylor?
- Logan, in 2025: Logan ranked #402 with 775 babies; Taylor ranked #403 with 772 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Logan or Taylor?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Logan moved down 85 places; Taylor moved down 241 places.
- Which is the older name, Logan or Taylor?
- Logan entered the US charts in 1972; Taylor entered the US charts in 1951. On the American record, Taylor is the older name.
- How many people are named Logan and Taylor?
- About 31,500 people named Logan are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 326,000 people named Taylor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Logans or Taylors in the classroom?
- Logan will almost certainly be the only one in school. Taylor 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 Logan, Taylor and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap