Head to head · Girls' names
Raven vs Taylor
#404 vs #403 in 2025
Taylor is a whisker ahead (#403 vs #404 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Taylor is stepping back from its peak, Raven is holding its place on the charts. On momentum, Raven has the edge.
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 4 measures of 6; Raven 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
- 1940s: Raven #4003, Taylor — — Raven higher
- 1950s: Raven #4855, Taylor #5081 — Raven higher
- 1960s: Raven #3847, Taylor #4542 — Raven higher
- 1970s: Raven #2711, Taylor #2113 — Taylor higher
- 1980s: Raven #521, Taylor #302 — Taylor higher
- 1990s: Raven #167, Taylor #14 — Taylor higher
- 2000s: Raven #371, Taylor #20 — Taylor higher
- 2010s: Raven #501, Taylor #80 — Taylor higher
- 2020s: Raven #397, Taylor #264 — Taylor higher
Taylor stood higher in 6 of 9 decades; Taylor has held the lead since the 1970s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Raven | Taylor |
|---|---|---|
| 1940s | #4003 | — |
| 1950s | #4855 | #5081 |
| 1960s | #3847 | #4542 |
| 1970s | #2711 | #2113 |
| 1980s | #521 | #302 |
| 1990s | #167 | #14 |
| 2000s | #371 | #20 |
| 2010s | #501 | #80 |
| 2020s | #397 | #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
Raven
raven (the bird)
From Old English hræfn, going back to a Proto-Germanic word thought to imitate the bird's call; German Rabe and Old Norse hrafn are the same word.
Proto-Germanic *hrabnaz → Old English hræfn → Middle English raven → Raven
How it traveled
Raven is a word name: English speakers have called the bird a raven for well over a thousand years, and the spelling has barely shifted. Long before it was a given name in America, the raven element was doing work inside Germanic names — the -hram in Bertram, the -fram in Wolfram — and Old Norse used Hrafn on its own as a man's name, which Icelandic still carries alongside the feminine Hrefna.
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
Raven
RAY-vun
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly like the bird. No competing pronunciation in English.
- Rae — The most portable short form, and a standalone given name in its own right.
- Rav — Informal, mostly spoken rather than written.
- Ravie — Affectionate family use, rarely used outside the household.
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 Raven if you want…
- a name on the way upup 13 places on the charts in five years
- 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
Raven
Strengths
- Spelled the way the ordinary English word is spelled, so it survives dictation over the phone without correction.
- Read correctly on sight by anyone who speaks English; there is no second pronunciation to fend off.
- Yields Rae, a short form that already stands on its own as a name.
To consider
- In Western literature the raven is a bird of omen — Poe's 1845 poem is the reference most English speakers reach for first. In Haida and Tlingit storytelling the same bird is a creator and trickster. Both associations travel with the name.
- US records list Raven overwhelmingly as a girl's name. It is given to boys too, but rarely enough that a boy named Raven will spend some time explaining it.
- Raven is also a familiar character name in comics and animation, which means a stretch of years where the reference gets mentioned. That fades as the shows do.
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
Raven
40%chance Raven feels dated by 2040
Raven 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 Raven 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 Raven 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
- Bird names taking flight
- Science-fiction names in real use
- Names with an edge
- Gothic names with candlelit edges
- all guides
Where Raven and Taylor each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Raven or Taylor — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Raven or Taylor?
- Taylor, in 2025: Taylor ranked #403 with 772 babies; Raven ranked #404 with 771 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Raven or Taylor?
- Raven. Over the last five years Raven moved up 13 places; Taylor moved down 241 places.
- Which is the older name, Raven or Taylor?
- Raven entered the US charts in 1941; Taylor entered the US charts in 1951. On the American record, Raven is the older name.
- How many people are named Raven and Taylor?
- About 44,500 people named Raven 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 Ravens or Taylors in the classroom?
- Raven 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 Raven, 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