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Daniell vs Danny

American parents have registered 288,341 Dannys since 1880, against 2,883 Daniells. Danny is still ahead, with 462 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Daniell Danny

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

Danny has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1900 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1987, when Daniell had 127 and Danny had 1,862.

Side by side

  Daniell Danny
Total US births 2,883288,341
Most in one year 1299,126
Babies in 2025 5462
Estimated living today 2,800212,000
Median age today 4062
Peak year 19841954
Best rank 1,216th girls42nd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked628th
First recorded 19511900
Girls / boys 2,047 / 8361,693 / 286,648

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 Dannys alive today are over 62; half the Daniells are over 40. That is 22 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: Daniell and Danny.