Dale
Dale is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 149 births. Its best rank was 46th, in 1952, 1958.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1490.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 19588,503 births
- Best rank
- #46first in 1952
- Since 1881
- 299,900people given the name
The story in the numbers
278,018 boys have been named Dale in the United States since 1881, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1958, with 8,503 births — 0.40% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 149 births in 2024, against 8,503 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1953, and the 1950s alone account for 27%. It has spent 129 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 49 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 21,882 girls have also been given it, 7.3% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Dale | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 121 | |
| 1890s | 281 | |
| 1900s | 672 | |
| 1910s | 8,218 | |
| 1920s | 22,752 | |
| 1930s | 32,536 | |
| 1940s | 46,812 | |
| 1950s | 75,567 | |
| 1960s | 50,420 | |
| 1970s | 18,066 | |
| 1980s | 10,486 | |
| 1990s | 6,213 | |
| 2000s | 3,628 | |
| 2010s | 1,593 | |
| 2020s | 653 |
In 1958, its biggest year
Dale was the 46th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1958 were Michael, David, James, Robert and John. See all of 1958.
Names that rose and fell with Dale
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Waynepeak 1947
- Kennethpeak 1957
- Dwainpeak 1959
- Gerardpeak 1956
- Darrelpeak 1960
- Richardpeak 1946
- Donnpeak 1949
- Derylpeak 1957
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.