Humanverse

Dena vs Denine

American parents have registered 32,535 Denas since 1880, against 963 Denines. Dena is still ahead, with 30 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dena against Denine, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dena Denine

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

Dena 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 1964, when Dena had 913 and Denine had 133.

Side by side

  Dena Denine
Total US births 32,535963
Most in one year 1,542133
Babies in 2025 30under 5
Estimated living today 26,000870
Median age today 5558
Peak year 19701964
Best rank 208th girls904th girls
Rank in 2025 4,546thunranked
First recorded 18801949
Girls / boys 32,479 / 56963 / 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 Denines alive today are over 58; half the Denas are over 55. That is 3 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Dena and Denine.