Humanverse

Doc vs Dock

American parents have registered 5,383 Docks since 1880, against 1,391 Docs. But in 2025 it was Doc that was commoner, 27 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Doc against Dock, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Doc Dock

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

Of the 143 years in which either name was published, Dock for 114 years and Doc for 29 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Doc Dock
Total US births 1,3915,383
Most in one year 37128
Babies in 2025 27under 5
Estimated living today 620910
Median age today 1368
Peak year 20211920
Best rank 3,180th boys542nd boys
Rank in 2025 3,949thunranked
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 0 / 1,3910 / 5,383

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 Docks alive today are over 68; half the Docs are over 13. That is 55 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: Doc and Dock.