Humanverse

Dan vs Danee

American parents have registered 107,130 Dans since 1880, against 565 Danees. Dan is still ahead, with 88 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dan against Danee, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dan Danee

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

Dan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2006, when Dan had 136 and Danee had 13.

Side by side

  Dan Danee
Total US births 107,130565
Most in one year 3,70222
Babies in 2025 88under 5
Estimated living today 59,000550
Median age today 6537
Peak year 19601982
Best rank 111th boys3,647th girls
Rank in 2025 1,959thunranked
First recorded 18801955
Girls / boys 576 / 106,554565 / 0

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 Dans alive today are over 65; half the Danees are over 37. That is 28 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: Dan and Danee.