Humanverse

Dawna vs Dawnette

American parents have registered 6,017 Dawnas since 1880, against 656 Dawnettes. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dawna against Dawnette, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dawna Dawnette

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

Dawna has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1919 to 2023. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1971, when Dawna had 169 and Dawnette had 54.

Side by side

  Dawna Dawnette
Total US births 6,017656
Most in one year 26454
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 5,100600
Median age today 5855
Peak year 19661971
Best rank 579th girls1,686th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19191951
Girls / boys 6,017 / 0656 / 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 Dawnas alive today are over 58; half the Dawnettes are over 55. That is 3 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: Dawna and Dawnette.