Humanverse

Dave vs Daveigh

American parents have registered 64,492 Daves since 1880, against 173 Daveighs. Dave is still ahead, with 55 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dave against Daveigh, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dave Daveigh

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

Dave 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 2004, when Dave had 100 and Daveigh had 21.

Side by side

  Dave Daveigh
Total US births 64,492173
Most in one year 3,30822
Babies in 2025 55under 5
Estimated living today 36,000170
Median age today 6517
Peak year 19592003
Best rank 119th boys5,419th girls
Rank in 2025 2,451stunranked
First recorded 18802003
Girls / boys 114 / 64,378173 / 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 Daves alive today are over 65; half the Daveighs are over 17. That is 48 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: Dave and Daveigh.