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Dale vs Dallie

American parents have registered 300,043 Dales since 1880, against 598 Dallies. Dale is still ahead, with 134 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dale Dallie

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 1889, when Dale had 19 and Dallie had 7.

Side by side

  Dale Dallie
Total US births 300,043598
Most in one year 9,08722
Babies in 2025 13410
Estimated living today 172,000240
Median age today 6611
Peak year 19581916
Best rank 46th boys1,949th girls
Rank in 2025 1,409th9,457th
First recorded 18811888
Girls / boys 21,887 / 278,156588 / 10

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 Dallies are over 11. That is 55 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 Dallie.