Humanverse

Dana vs Danetta

American parents have registered 246,842 Danas since 1880, against 891 Danettas. Dana is still ahead, with 269 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dana Danetta

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

Dana 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 1934, when Dana had 223 and Danetta had 5.

Side by side

  Dana Danetta
Total US births 246,842891
Most in one year 8,03239
Babies in 2025 269under 5
Estimated living today 215,000800
Median age today 5254
Peak year 19711973
Best rank 44th girls2,064th girls
Rank in 2025 1,027thunranked
First recorded 18801934
Girls / boys 193,555 / 53,287891 / 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 Danettas alive today are over 54; half the Danas are over 52. That is 2 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: Dana and Danetta.