Dean
Dean is ranked 142nd among boys in 2024 (2,545 births). Its best rank was 78th, in 1967–1968.
- Rank in 2024
- #142up 17 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 2,5450.15% of boys
- Peak year
- 19614,931 births
- Best rank
- #78first in 1967
- Since 1880
- 192,948people given the name
The story in the numbers
190,040 boys have been named Dean in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1961, with 4,931 births — 0.23% of all boys recorded that year.
This is a comeback. After an early peak the name fell to a fraction of its former share, and it has been climbing again for the past decade.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1963, and the 1960s alone account for 22%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 14 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 2,908 girls have also been given it, 1.5% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Dean | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 132 | |
| 1890s | 247 | |
| 1900s | 381 | |
| 1910s | 3,812 | |
| 1920s | 11,155 | |
| 1930s | 13,629 | |
| 1940s | 16,356 | |
| 1950s | 34,587 | |
| 1960s | 42,523 | |
| 1970s | 13,899 | |
| 1980s | 8,063 | |
| 1990s | 8,122 | |
| 2000s | 8,034 | |
| 2010s | 17,493 | |
| 2020s | 11,607 |
In 1961, its biggest year
Dean was the 84th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1961 were Michael, David, John, James and Robert. See all of 1961.
Names that rose and fell with Dean
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Vonpeak 1958
- Montepeak 1956
- Laddpeak 1961
- Darelpeak 1956
- Maurypeak 1963
- Delpeak 1958
- Frankiepeak 1959
- Darvinpeak 1963
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.