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Dolan vs Dolen

American parents have registered 1,701 Dolans since 1880, against 20 Dolens. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dolan against Dolen, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dolan Dolen

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

Dolan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1914 to 2023. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1928, when Dolan had 10 and Dolen had 8.

Side by side

  Dolan Dolen
Total US births 1,70120
Most in one year 368
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1,2002
Median age today 3086
Peak year 19961928
Best rank 2,254th boys3,076th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19141928
Girls / boys 0 / 1,7010 / 20

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 Dolens alive today are over 86; half the Dolans are over 30. That is 56 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: Dolan and Dolen.