Humanverse

Don vs Donnald

American parents have registered 168,839 Dons since 1880, against 386 Donnalds. Don is still ahead, with 89 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Don against Donnald, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Don Donnald

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

Don 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 1981, when Don had 664 and Donnald had 7.

Side by side

  Don Donnald
Total US births 168,839386
Most in one year 4,13020
Babies in 2025 89under 5
Estimated living today 78,000250
Median age today 6767
Peak year 19461954
Best rank 79th boys1,706th boys
Rank in 2025 1,793rdunranked
First recorded 18801929
Girls / boys 1,207 / 167,6320 / 386

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: Don and Donnald.