Humanverse

Dawn vs Dawsen

American parents have registered 290,680 Dawns since 1880, against 553 Dawsens. Dawn is still ahead, with 85 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dawn Dawsen

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 2019, when Dawn had 86 and Dawsen had 30.

Side by side

  Dawn Dawsen
Total US births 290,680553
Most in one year 15,72438
Babies in 2025 8517
Estimated living today 256,000550
Median age today 5614
Peak year 19701999
Best rank 16th girls2,347th boys
Rank in 2025 2,173rd5,399th
First recorded 18881998
Girls / boys 289,641 / 1,03931 / 522

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 Dawsens are over 14. That is 42 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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