Humanverse

Dakota vs Dakwon

American parents have registered 134,576 Dakotas since 1880, against 89 Dakwons. Dakota is still ahead, with 2,109 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dakota against Dakwon, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dakota Dakwon

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Dakota has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1915 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2004, when Dakota had 4,098 and Dakwon had 14.

Side by side

  Dakota Dakwon
Total US births 134,57689
Most in one year 7,70014
Babies in 2025 2,109under 5
Estimated living today 132,00090
Median age today 2427
Peak year 19952004
Best rank 56th boys5,492nd boys
Rank in 2025 319thunranked
First recorded 19151995
Girls / boys 41,458 / 93,1180 / 89

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Dakwons alive today are over 27; half the Dakotas are over 24. That is 3 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Dakota and Dakwon.