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Dennies vs Dennis

American parents have registered 623,692 Dennises since 1880, against 65 Dennieses. Dennis is still ahead, with 381 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dennies against Dennis, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dennies Dennis

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

Dennis has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1969, when Dennies had 5 and Dennis had 7,402.

Side by side

  Dennies Dennis
Total US births 65623,692
Most in one year 824,605
Babies in 2025 under 5381
Estimated living today 50408,000
Median age today 6567
Peak year 19521952
Best rank 2,875th boys18th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked707th
First recorded 19471880
Girls / boys 0 / 652,692 / 621,000

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 Dennises alive today are over 67; half the Dennieses are over 65. That is 2 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: Dennies and Dennis.