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Dolly vs Dolorese

American parents have registered 20,636 Dollys since 1880, against 9 Doloreses. Dolly is still ahead, with 113 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dolly against Dolorese, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dolly Dolorese

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

Dolly 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 1932, when Dolly had 364 and Dolorese had 9.

Side by side

  Dolly Dolorese
Total US births 20,6369
Most in one year 3959
Babies in 2025 113under 5
Estimated living today 8,4001
Median age today 6693
Peak year 19261932
Best rank 332nd girls3,047th girls
Rank in 2025 1,777thunranked
First recorded 18801932
Girls / boys 20,592 / 449 / 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 Doloreses alive today are over 93; half the Dollys are over 66. That is 27 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: Dolly and Dolorese.