Desiree vs Dessa
American parents have registered 83,761 Desirees since 1880, against 1,817 Dessas. Desiree is still ahead, with 151 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Desiree Dessa
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 143 years in which either name was published, Desiree for 85 years and Dessa for 58 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.
Side by side
| Desiree | Dessa | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 83,761 | 1,817 |
| Most in one year | 2,925 | 31 |
| Babies in 2025 | 151 | 16 |
| Estimated living today | 80,000 | 1,100 |
| Median age today | 35 | 36 |
| Peak year | 1983 | 2001 |
| Best rank | 94th girls | 4,025th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 1,427th | 6,838th |
| First recorded | 1910 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 83,563 / 198 | 1,817 / 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.
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Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Desiree and Dessa.