Humanverse

Drea vs Dream

American parents have registered 8,327 Dreams since 1880, against 858 Dreas. Dream is still ahead, with 780 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Drea against Dream, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Drea Dream

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 39 years in which either name was published, Dream for 32 years and Drea for 7 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Drea Dream
Total US births 8588,327
Most in one year 501,032
Babies in 2025 14780
Estimated living today 8508,300
Median age today 144
Peak year 20052022
Best rank 3,126th girls335th girls
Rank in 2025 7,491st432nd
First recorded 19731970
Girls / boys 858 / 07,771 / 556

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 Dreas alive today are over 14; half the Dreams are over 4. That is 10 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: Drea and Dream.