Humanverse

Dewey vs Dewight

American parents have registered 34,920 Deweys since 1880, against 528 Dewights. Dewey is still ahead, with 28 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dewey Dewight

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 2016, when Dewey had 16 and Dewight had 5.

Side by side

  Dewey Dewight
Total US births 34,920528
Most in one year 1,21919
Babies in 2025 28under 5
Estimated living today 11,000430
Median age today 6650
Peak year 18981976
Best rank 19th boys2,329th boys
Rank in 2025 3,848thunranked
First recorded 18871930
Girls / boys 547 / 34,3730 / 528

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 Dewights are over 50. That is 16 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: Dewey and Dewight.