Dora vs Doris
American parents have registered 465,789 Dorises since 1880, against 106,480 Doras. But in 2025 it was Dora that was commoner, 75 babies to 58.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Dora Doris
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 146 years in which either name was published, Doris for 96 years and Dora for 50 years. The lead changed hands 18 times.
- 1880–1904 Dora ahead
- 1905–1994 Doris ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1995–2011 Dora ahead, apart from one short spell
- 2012–2024 Doris ahead, apart from 2 short spells
11 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Dora | Doris | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 106,480 | 465,789 |
| Most in one year | 2,031 | 16,679 |
| Babies in 2025 | 75 | 58 |
| Estimated living today | 33,000 | 127,000 |
| Median age today | 65 | 76 |
| Peak year | 1921 | 1928 |
| Best rank | 130th girls | 7th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 2,387th | 2,895th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 105,930 / 550 | 462,548 / 3,241 |
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 Dorises alive today are over 76; half the Doras are over 65. That is 11 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Dora New Mexico (3.2×), Mississippi (2.6×), Texas (2.4×)
- Doris North Dakota (1.9×), Vermont (1.8×), South Dakota (1.8×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Dora | Doris |
|---|---|---|
| France | 2,130 | 5,685 |
| England and Wales | 652 | 194 |
| Belgium | 225 | 91 |
| Switzerland | 160 | 72 |
| Ireland | 95 | 64 |
| Scotland | 6 | 3 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Dora and Doris.