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Dale vs Dallin

American parents have registered 300,043 Dales since 1880, against 5,197 Dallins. Dale is still ahead, with 134 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dale Dallin

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 2011, when Dale had 166 and Dallin had 134.

Side by side

  Dale Dallin
Total US births 300,0435,197
Most in one year 9,087237
Babies in 2025 13435
Estimated living today 172,0005,100
Median age today 6623
Peak year 19582002
Best rank 46th boys737th boys
Rank in 2025 1,409th3,314th
First recorded 18811971
Girls / boys 21,887 / 278,1560 / 5,197

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 Dallins are over 23. That is 43 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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