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Dale vs Dalles

American parents have registered 300,043 Dales since 1880, against 33 Dalleses. Dale is still ahead, with 134 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dale Dalles

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 2013, when Dale had 157 and Dalles had 6.

Side by side

  Dale Dalles
Total US births 300,04333
Most in one year 9,0877
Babies in 2025 134under 5
Estimated living today 172,00030
Median age today 6629
Peak year 19581940
Best rank 46th boys2,871st boys
Rank in 2025 1,409thunranked
First recorded 18811940
Girls / boys 21,887 / 278,1560 / 33

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 Dalleses are over 29. That is 37 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 Dalles.