Dwain vs Dwan

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Dwain Dwan

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 112 years in which either name was published, Dwain for 87 years and Dwan for 25 years. The lead changed hands 14 times.

• 1913–1975 Dwain ahead
• 1976–1987 Dwan ahead, apart from one short spell
• 1988–1993 Dwain ahead
• 1994–2002 Dwan ahead
• 2011–2022 Dwain ahead

9 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

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 Dwains alive today are over 62; half the Dwans are over 44. That is 18 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

• Dwain Nebraska (3.9×), Louisiana (2.5×), Iowa (2.5×)
• Dwan Louisiana (12.3×), South Carolina (5.3×), Michigan (1.8×)

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

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