Humanverse

Dawn vs Dawnelle

American parents have registered 290,680 Dawns since 1880, against 526 Dawnelles. Dawn is still ahead, with 85 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dawn against Dawnelle, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dawn Dawnelle

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

Dawn has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1888 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1989, when Dawn had 863 and Dawnelle had 14.

Side by side

  Dawn Dawnelle
Total US births 290,680526
Most in one year 15,72424
Babies in 2025 85under 5
Estimated living today 256,000480
Median age today 5650
Peak year 19701976
Best rank 16th girls3,002nd girls
Rank in 2025 2,173rdunranked
First recorded 18881946
Girls / boys 289,641 / 1,039526 / 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 Dawns alive today are over 56; half the Dawnelles are over 50. That is 6 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: Dawn and Dawnelle.