Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Dayton was most popular in 2008, when 599 American babies were given the name — ranking #979 that year. In 2025 it ranked #2,129, with 212 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 16,395 people named Dayton.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Dayton is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 139 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 16,395 American births named Dayton between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 13,711 are estimated to be alive today.
212 American babies were named Dayton in 2025, ranking #2,129 that year.
Dayton is falling. Across 2021–2025 it averaged 204 births a year, against 383 a year across 2011–2015 — a change of -47% over the decade.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Dayton is a boy’s name — 3.9% of the 16,395 Americans given it were girls and 96.1% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 7% girls and 93% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 13,711 Americans named Dayton are alive today — 84% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 21 years old, and half are between 14 and 28.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Dayton on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org