Humanverse

Dat vs Dathan

American parents have registered 1,571 Dathans since 1880, against 534 Dats. Dathan is still ahead, with 6 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dat against Dathan, 1880 to 2025 0 15 30 45 60 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dat Dathan

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

Of the 66 years in which either name was published, Dathan for 64 years and Dat for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Dat Dathan
Total US births 5341,571
Most in one year 2653
Babies in 2025 under 56
Estimated living today 5201,500
Median age today 2927
Peak year 19812005
Best rank 2,038th boys2,237th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked10,695th
First recorded 19791958
Girls / boys 0 / 5340 / 1,571

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 Dats alive today are over 29; half the Dathans are over 27. 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

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