Humanverse

Dollie vs Dollye

American parents have registered 19,298 Dollies since 1880, against 257 Dollyes. Dollie is still ahead, with 13 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dollie Dollye

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

Dollie 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 1954, when Dollie had 134 and Dollye had 7.

Side by side

  Dollie Dollye
Total US births 19,298257
Most in one year 45913
Babies in 2025 13under 5
Estimated living today 4,20050
Median age today 7482
Peak year 19211925
Best rank 305th girls2,617th girls
Rank in 2025 7,885thunranked
First recorded 18801896
Girls / boys 19,237 / 61257 / 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 Dollyes alive today are over 82; half the Dollies are over 74. That is 8 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: Dollie and Dollye.