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Dalana vs Dale

American parents have registered 300,043 Dales since 1880, against 635 Dalanas. Dale is still ahead, with 134 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dalana against Dale, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dalana Dale

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

Dale has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1881 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2019, when Dalana had 9 and Dale had 118.

Side by side

  Dalana Dale
Total US births 635300,043
Most in one year 199,087
Babies in 2025 under 5134
Estimated living today 610172,000
Median age today 3566
Peak year 19771958
Best rank 3,761st girls46th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,409th
First recorded 19471881
Girls / boys 635 / 021,887 / 278,156

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 Dales alive today are over 66; half the Dalanas are over 35. That is 31 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: Dalana and Dale.