Humanverse

Dana vs Danity

American parents have registered 246,842 Danas since 1880, against 184 Danitys. Dana is still ahead, with 269 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dana against Danity, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dana Danity

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

Dana 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 2009, when Dana had 631 and Danity had 31.

Side by side

  Dana Danity
Total US births 246,842184
Most in one year 8,03231
Babies in 2025 269under 5
Estimated living today 215,000180
Median age today 5215
Peak year 19712009
Best rank 44th girls4,677th girls
Rank in 2025 1,027thunranked
First recorded 18802007
Girls / boys 193,555 / 53,287184 / 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 Danas alive today are over 52; half the Danitys are over 15. That is 37 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: Dana and Danity.