Humanverse

Dirk vs Dirl

American parents have registered 10,955 Dirks since 1880, against 12 Dirls. Dirk is still ahead, with 21 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dirk against Dirl, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dirk Dirl

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

Dirk has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1918 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1933, when Dirk had 18 and Dirl had 7.

Side by side

  Dirk Dirl
Total US births 10,95512
Most in one year 4387
Babies in 2025 21under 5
Estimated living today 8,8003
Median age today 5779
Peak year 19541933
Best rank 341st boys3,004th boys
Rank in 2025 4,707thunranked
First recorded 19181933
Girls / boys 0 / 10,9550 / 12

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 Dirls alive today are over 79; half the Dirks are over 57. That is 22 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

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