Dakota
Dakota is a unisex name: 1,035 girls and 1,074 boys were given it in 2025 (#296 among girls’ names and #319 among boys’, #318 among all names counting both); 134,576 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Dakota every year since 2025.
An estimated 132,000 Americans named Dakota and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 16 and 30.
Dakota is among the most evenly shared names of 2025: #1 of 43 unisex names by how close its split is to half and half.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Dakota by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Dakota mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Dakota is “a unisex given name transferred from the place name.” Its etymology gives the sense “ally” (dakhóta).
Borrowed from Dakota dakhóta (“ally”).
/dəˈkəʊtə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Dakota?
#319 among boys’ names, 2025
Dakota rose from #356 in 2015 to #319 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.49 to 0.63 per 1,000.
7,700 babies in 1995, the peak
Dakota peaked in 1995, when 7,700 babies were given it (6,575 boys, #56 among boys’ names). The 2,109 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 27% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,035 | #296 | 1,074 | #319 |
| 2024 | 1,160 | #273 | 1,060 | #326 |
| 2023 | 1,191 | #262 | 1,017 | #328 |
| 2022 | 1,210 | #259 | 945 | #347 |
| 2021 | 1,163 | #270 | 958 | #340 |
| 2020 | 1,175 | #257 | 920 | #346 |
| 2019 | 1,269 | #259 | 973 | #344 |
| 2018 | 1,322 | #246 | 944 | #349 |
| 2017 | 1,362 | #231 | 1,000 | #340 |
| 2016 | 1,417 | #227 | 874 | #376 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,334 | #242 | 943 | #356 |
| 2014 | 1,149 | #283 | 894 | #358 |
| 2013 | 1,089 | #293 | 905 | #350 |
| 2012 | 1,039 | #308 | 961 | #328 |
| 2011 | 1,068 | #294 | 1,031 | #312 |
| 2010 | 1,142 | #285 | 1,142 | #292 |
| 2009 | 1,198 | #274 | 1,387 | #251 |
| 2008 | 1,288 | #266 | 1,645 | #226 |
| 2007 | 1,486 | #239 | 1,962 | #202 |
| 2006 | 1,839 | #190 | 2,367 | #172 |
| 2005 | 1,515 | #225 | 2,722 | #148 |
| 2004 | 1,180 | #278 | 2,918 | #137 |
| 2003 | 917 | #340 | 3,160 | #126 |
| 2002 | 952 | #323 | 3,487 | #107 |
| 2001 | 943 | #330 | 3,980 | #93 |
| 2000 | 1,086 | #296 | 4,553 | #88 |
| 1999 | 1,167 | #269 | 5,093 | #77 |
| 1998 | 1,242 | #247 | 5,401 | #72 |
| 1997 | 1,175 | #250 | 5,664 | #66 |
| 1996 | 1,055 | #274 | 6,067 | #58 |
| 1995 | 1,125 | #252 | 6,575 | #56 |
| 1994 | 895 | #306 | 5,535 | #69 |
| 1993 | 724 | #355 | 4,411 | #85 |
| 1992 | 752 | #346 | 3,613 | #103 |
| 1991 | 636 | #400 | 2,739 | #121 |
| 1990 | 380 | #595 | 1,551 | #195 |
| 1989 | 163 | #1,045 | 824 | #296 |
| 1988 | 99 | #1,409 | 554 | #363 |
| 1987 | 78 | #1,592 | 430 | #421 |
| 1986 | 72 | #1,640 | 320 | #488 |
| 1985 | 62 | #1,814 | 109 | #869 |
| 1984 | 19 | #4,032 | 60 | #1,178 |
| 1983 | 15 | #4,718 | 49 | #1,326 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,272 | 42 | #1,490 |
| 1981 | 19 | #4,032 | 29 | #1,904 |
| 1980 | 25 | #3,342 | 40 | #1,526 |
| 1979 | 20 | #3,800 | 34 | #1,682 |
| 1978 | 15 | #4,490 | 55 | #1,205 |
| 1977 | 14 | #4,708 | 22 | #2,139 |
| 1976 | 11 | #5,285 | 16 | #2,625 |
| 1975 | 12 | #4,910 | 14 | #2,778 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,367 | 8 | #3,898 |
| 1973 | 11 | #4,939 | 9 | #3,497 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,472 | 13 | #2,688 |
| 1971 | 8 | #6,117 | under 5 | |
| 1970 | under 5 | 9 | #3,332 | |
| 1968 | under 5 | 5 | #4,247 | |
| 1966 | 8 | #4,948 | 5 | #4,059 |
| 1965 | 9 | #4,563 | under 5 | |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,142 | under 5 | |
| 1963 | 5 | #6,788 | under 5 | |
| 1962 | 9 | #4,593 | under 5 | |
| 1961 | 13 | #3,634 | under 5 | |
| 1960 | 13 | #3,537 | under 5 | |
| 1959 | 20 | #2,608 | under 5 | |
| 1958 | 11 | #3,780 | under 5 | |
| 1921 | 6 | #4,587 | under 5 | |
| 1915 | 8 | #3,192 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Dakota a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 134,576 Americans recorded as Dakota, 31% are girls and 69% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Dakota: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Dakota, and how old are they?
132,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 134,576 Americans ever recorded as Dakota. The median Dakota alive today is 25 years old; half are between 16 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 102,684 people named Dakota (30,095 women and girls, 72,589 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 120,346 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 65 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 347 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 37,700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 65,600 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 28,200 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Dakota born?
The states with the most babies named Dakota are Texas, California and Florida, with 23% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 222 | #346 | 0.8× |
| California | 135 | #525 | 0.4× |
| Florida | 116 | #373 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 108 | #248 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 92 | #236 | 1.3× |
| North Carolina | 81 | #249 | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 77 | #259 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 73 | #326 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 73 | #329 | 0.8× |
| New York | 66 | #666 | 0.5× |
Where Dakota is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Dakota is most over-represented in West Virginia: since 1915 it was given 2.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Dakota with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 140,917 babies since 1880, Dakota is the most given (96% of them). In 2025 it was given to 2,109 of their 2,171 babies (97%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Dakota
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Dakota and names like it
- Compare Dakota and DakotahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sDakota peaked in 1995.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Dakota since 1910.
- From place namesWiktionary’s origin for Dakota: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1995The year the most babies were named Dakota.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Dakota alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with DMost given first.