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Doreen vs Dorylee

American parents have registered 46,489 Doreens since 1880, against 7 Dorylees. Doreen is still ahead, with 25 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Doreen against Dorylee, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Doreen Dorylee

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

Doreen 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 1933, when Doreen had 309 and Dorylee had 7.

Side by side

  Doreen Dorylee
Total US births 46,4897
Most in one year 2,5747
Babies in 2025 25under 5
Estimated living today 35,0001
Median age today 6592
Peak year 19561933
Best rank 147th girls3,406th girls
Rank in 2025 5,099thunranked
First recorded 19001933
Girls / boys 46,431 / 587 / 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 Dorylees alive today are over 92; half the Doreens are over 65. 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: Doreen and Dorylee.