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Dale vs Dall

American parents have registered 300,043 Dales since 1880, against 6 Dalls. Dale is still ahead, with 134 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dale Dall

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 1938, when Dale had 3,899 and Dall had 6.

Side by side

  Dale Dall
Total US births 300,0436
Most in one year 9,0876
Babies in 2025 134under 5
Estimated living today 172,0001
Median age today 6687
Peak year 19581938
Best rank 46th boys3,175th boys
Rank in 2025 1,409thunranked
First recorded 18811938
Girls / boys 21,887 / 278,1560 / 6

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 Dalls alive today are over 87; half the Dales are over 66. That is 21 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: Dale and Dall.