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Dall vs Dalton

American parents have registered 86,142 Daltons since 1880, against 6 Dalls. Dalton is still ahead, with 705 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dall against Dalton, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dall Dalton

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

Dalton 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 Dall had 6 and Dalton had 118.

Side by side

  Dall Dalton
Total US births 686,142
Most in one year 64,590
Babies in 2025 under 5705
Estimated living today 179,000
Median age today 8725
Peak year 19381998
Best rank 3,175th boys88th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked448th
First recorded 19381881
Girls / boys 0 / 6432 / 85,710

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 Daltons are over 25. That is 62 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: Dall and Dalton.