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Donivan vs Donovan

American parents have registered 61,904 Donovans since 1880, against 1,181 Donivans. Donovan is still ahead, with 609 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Donivan against Donovan, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Donivan Donovan

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

Donovan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1900 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1913, when Donivan had 6 and Donovan had 28.

Side by side

  Donivan Donovan
Total US births 1,18161,904
Most in one year 562,219
Babies in 2025 5609
Estimated living today 1,10058,000
Median age today 2322
Peak year 20072003
Best rank 2,304th boys176th boys
Rank in 2025 12,008th495th
First recorded 19131900
Girls / boys 0 / 1,181220 / 61,684

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.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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