Humanverse

Dawes vs Dawn

American parents have registered 290,680 Dawns since 1880, against 31 Daweses. Dawn is still ahead, with 85 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dawes against Dawn, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dawes Dawn

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

Dawn has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1888 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1924, when Dawes had 9 and Dawn had 141.

Side by side

  Dawes Dawn
Total US births 31290,680
Most in one year 915,724
Babies in 2025 under 585
Estimated living today 10256,000
Median age today 856
Peak year 19241970
Best rank 3,023rd boys16th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,173rd
First recorded 19241888
Girls / boys 0 / 31289,641 / 1,039

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 Dawns alive today are over 56; half the Daweses are over 8. 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: Dawes and Dawn.