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Dewane vs Dewey

American parents have registered 34,920 Deweys since 1880, against 508 Dewanes. Dewey is still ahead, with 28 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dewane Dewey

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

Dewey has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1887 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2015, when Dewane had 5 and Dewey had 17.

Side by side

  Dewane Dewey
Total US births 50834,920
Most in one year 181,219
Babies in 2025 under 528
Estimated living today 27011,000
Median age today 6066
Peak year 19321898
Best rank 1,716th boys19th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked3,848th
First recorded 19211887
Girls / boys 0 / 508547 / 34,373

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 Deweys alive today are over 66; half the Dewanes are over 60. That is 6 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: Dewane and Dewey.