Humanverse

Dream vs Drexel

American parents have registered 8,327 Dreams since 1880, against 1,444 Drexels. Dream is still ahead, with 780 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dream against Drexel, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dream Drexel

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

Of the 111 years in which either name was published, Drexel for 80 years and Dream for 31 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Dream Drexel
Total US births 8,3271,444
Most in one year 1,03229
Babies in 2025 78011
Estimated living today 8,300820
Median age today 444
Peak year 20221957
Best rank 335th girls1,511th boys
Rank in 2025 432nd7,194th
First recorded 19701910
Girls / boys 7,771 / 55640 / 1,404

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 Drexels alive today are over 44; half the Dreams are over 4. That is 40 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: Dream and Drexel.