Head to head · Girls' names
Savannah vs Scottie
#135 vs #126 in 2025
Scottie is a whisker ahead (#126 vs #135 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Scottie is climbing the charts fast, Savannah is stepping back from its peak.
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
The tape is even: Savannah and Scottie each lead 3 measures of 6.
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: Savannah #378, Scottie #921 — Savannah higher
- 1890s: Savannah #455, Scottie — — Savannah higher
- 1900s: Savannah #519, Scottie #1713 — Savannah higher
- 1910s: Savannah #734, Scottie #2497 — Savannah higher
- 1920s: Savannah #911, Scottie #2979 — Savannah higher
- 1930s: Savannah #1088, Scottie #2403 — Savannah higher
- 1940s: Savannah #1342, Scottie #2042 — Savannah higher
- 1950s: Savannah #1876, Scottie #2453 — Savannah higher
- 1960s: Savannah #3210, Scottie #2801 — Scottie higher
- 1970s: Savannah #3176, Scottie #4027 — Savannah higher
- 1980s: Savannah #735, Scottie #4737 — Savannah higher
- 1990s: Savannah #95, Scottie #6727 — Savannah higher
- 2000s: Savannah #37, Scottie #12364 — Savannah higher
- 2010s: Savannah #42, Scottie #6663 — Savannah higher
- 2020s: Savannah #91, Scottie #721 — Savannah higher
Savannah stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Savannah has held the lead since the 1970s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Savannah | Scottie |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #378 | #921 |
| 1890s | #455 | — |
| 1900s | #519 | #1713 |
| 1910s | #734 | #2497 |
| 1920s | #911 | #2979 |
| 1930s | #1088 | #2403 |
| 1940s | #1342 | #2042 |
| 1950s | #1876 | #2453 |
| 1960s | #3210 | #2801 |
| 1970s | #3176 | #4027 |
| 1980s | #735 | #4737 |
| 1990s | #95 | #6727 |
| 2000s | #37 | #12364 |
| 2010s | #42 | #6663 |
| 2020s | #91 | #721 |
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
Savannah
open grassland — or the name English colonists used for the Shawnee people
Two routes compete. One runs through the word: Taíno zabana, recorded by Spanish writers in the Caribbean in the early sixteenth century, became Spanish sabana and then English savanna, a treeless plain. The other traces the Savannah River's name to the Shawnee, whom English colonists in the Southeast wrote down as 'Savannah'. Both are serious; what is unsettled is which one gave the river its name.
zabana (Taíno) → sabana (Spanish) → savanna (English) → Savannah (Georgia city) → Savannah
How it traveled
The word came before the name. Spanish chroniclers in the Caribbean took zabana from the Taíno for flat, treeless grassland, and it traveled into Spanish as sabana and into English as savanna.
Scottie
a Scot; someone from Scotland
Scottie is the pet form of Scott, from the Old English byname Scott, 'a Gael, a Scot'. The older Latin Scotti first named Gaelic-speaking people of Ireland who settled in what became Scotland.
Scotti → Scott → Scotty → Scottie
How it traveled
The root is a people, not a word for a quality: Latin writers used Scotti for Gaelic speakers from Ireland, some of whom crossed to the west of what is now Scotland, and the name traveled back into English as a byname for such a person. It hardened into a surname, then — as so many British surnames did — into a first name, common enough in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to earn its own affectionate short forms, Scotty and Scottie.
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
Savannah
suh-VAN-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The final h is silent — it is purely a spelling matter, and the h-less Savanna is read exactly the same way.
- Sav — The everyday clip, used by friends and family; rarely written on anything formal.
- Savvy — Common in childhood and among close family; some keep it into adulthood.
- Vanna — Taken from the middle of the name; also exists on its own as a given name.
- Anna — Sits inside the spelling and is occasionally used as a quieter alternative.
Scottie
SKOT-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with 'dotty'. No one in an English-speaking country will need it spelled out loud — though they may need the -ie ending confirmed.
- Scott — The full form behind the pet name; still widely used as a standalone given name, mostly for men, and an easy formal option on paper.
- Scotty — The other standard spelling of the same short form, used interchangeably in speech and often by an older generation.
- Scots — Informal, family-level shortening; not used in writing.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Savannah if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsSavannah is stepping back from its peak
- a name with more sound in itSavannah runs 3 syllables, Scottie 2
- a long American recordSavannah was already in use when US records began in 1880
Choose Scottie if you want…
- a name on the way upup 1,200 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesScottie is 2 syllables to Savannah's 3
- a newer arrivalScottie entered the US charts in 1885
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
Savannah
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds for English speakers, and already familiar as both a city and a dictionary word — it rarely has to be explained.
- Two well-worn short forms, Sav and Savvy, both in real use without anyone having to invent them.
- The middle-syllable stress and soft ending sit easily against short, single-syllable surnames.
To consider
- It carries the American South with it — Georgia specifically. That is charming to many people and simply geographic to others, but it is part of the name wherever it goes.
- Savanna and Savannah are both in circulation, so expect to spell it out or correct the missing h now and then.
- It rose quickly and has begun easing back, which means it reads to some ears as belonging to a particular generation of young women rather than to grandmothers or to newborns.
Scottie
Strengths
- Instantly readable and sayable in English: nobody has to be told how to pronounce it.
- Comes with a ready-made formal option, Scott, if a longer version is ever wanted on a document.
- Fits the large family of -ie names given to both girls and boys — Charlie, Frankie, Bobbie — so it will not sound out of place in a classroom.
To consider
- Scottie and Scotty are both standard, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections about which ending you use.
- It reads as a nickname to many people. Some will assume there is a longer name behind it and ask what it is short for.
- The Scottish Terrier is called a Scottie, and the Monopoly dog is one. It is a mild, mostly friendly association, but it is there.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
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 Savannah and Scottie 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 Savannah and Scottie?
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 that carry both names
Every list here names both Savannah and Scottie — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Savannah or Scottie — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Savannah or Scottie?
- Scottie, in 2025: Scottie ranked #126 with 2,228 babies; Savannah ranked #135 with 2,141 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Savannah or Scottie?
- Scottie. Over the last five years Savannah moved down 68 places; Scottie moved up 1,200 places.
- Which is the older name, Savannah or Scottie?
- Savannah was already in use when US records began in 1880; Scottie entered the US charts in 1885. On the American record, Savannah is the older name.
- How many people are named Savannah and Scottie?
- About 187,000 people named Savannah are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 6,300 people named Scottie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Savannahs or Scotties in the classroom?
- Savannah will almost certainly be the only one in school. Scottie 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 Savannah, Scottie and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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