Meaning not yet researched.
Dakota: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 1,074 in 2025. Its best rank was #56 in 1995.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #56 in 1995; #319 in 2025. About 51% of babies named Dakota in 2025 were boys.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#319 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 1995, at #56.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Dakota: US boys and girls given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 1,074 boys in 2025. Peak: #56 in 1995 · most boys in one year: 6,575 (1995).
In 2025, 1,074 US boys were named Dakota, making it the 319th most common boys’ name of the year, up 7 places from #326 in 2024. That is 14 more than the 1,060 boys named Dakota in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #56, reached in 1995. That year also had the most boys given the name: 6,575. For comparison, it was #356 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
In 2025, 1,035 US girls were named Dakota, making it the 296th most common girls’ name of the year, down 23 places from #273 in 2024. That is 125 fewer than the 1,160 girls named Dakota in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #190, reached in 2006. That year also had the most girls given the name: 1,839. For comparison, it was #242 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Dakota in 68 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1915 with 8 babies. In all, 134,576 US babies have been given the name, 31% of them girls and 69% boys. Its busiest decade was the 1990s, with 55,800 babies named Dakota.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 9,765 US boys were named Dakota; the busiest of those years was 2025, with 1,074. In 2025 that was about 1 in 1,590 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Dakota ranked highest in Oklahoma in 2025, at #133 for boys there. It was not in the top 100 of any state. Related spellings in the SSA files include Dakotah (5,465 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Dacota, Dacotah and Dakotta are summarised on this page.
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Rare spellings summarised here: Dacota (679), Dacotah (108), Dakotta (89), Dakkota (47), Dakoata (25), Dakita (24), Daykota (6).
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Dakota in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
US boys. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five boys got the name, so 8 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma | 35 | #133 | #207 |
| Mississippi | 19 | #166 | #269 |
| Alaska | 5 | #173 | — |
| Delaware | 6 | #176 | — |
| South Carolina | 31 | #180 | #259 |
| Arkansas | 20 | #183 | #200 |
| Kentucky | 31 | #184 | #190 |
| Louisiana | 27 | #192 | #244 |
| Oregon | 22 | #194 | #230 |
| Alabama | 28 | #201 | #188 |
| North Dakota | 6 | #206 | — |
| Hawaii | 5 | #227 | — |
| South Dakota | 6 | #231 | — |
| Missouri | 31 | #233 | #267 |
| Idaho | 11 | #234 | #271 |
| Ohio | 53 | #236 | #233 |
| Maine | 5 | #239 | — |
| Georgia | 50 | #248 | #291 |
| North Carolina | 50 | #249 | #308 |
| Indiana | 32 | #256 | #258 |
| Michigan | 39 | #259 | #253 |
| West Virginia | 7 | #267 | #202 |
| Nevada | 11 | #278 | — |
| Tennessee | 31 | #283 | #261 |
| Virginia | 30 | #284 | #318 |
| Arizona | 25 | #313 | #465 |
| Pennsylvania | 34 | #326 | #288 |
| Illinois | 33 | #329 | #416 |
| Utah | 14 | #333 | #517 |
| Connecticut | 9 | #335 | #402 |
| Texas | 110 | #346 | #424 |
| Maryland | 15 | #347 | #503 |
| Colorado | 18 | #349 | #324 |
| Florida | 52 | #373 | #412 |
| Wisconsin | 13 | #397 | #292 |
| Washington | 18 | #407 | #447 |
| Massachusetts | 11 | #442 | #645 |
| Kansas | 7 | #477 | #337 |
| Minnesota | 11 | #485 | #478 |
| California | 59 | #525 | #563 |
| New Jersey | 12 | #582 | — |
| Iowa | 5 | #596 | #262 |
| New York | 22 | #666 | #631 |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| 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 |
| 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 | #596 | 1,551 | #195 |
| 1989 | 163 | #1,048 | 824 | #296 |
| 1988 | 99 | #1,410 | 554 | #363 |
| 1987 | 78 | #1,593 | 430 | #421 |
| 1986 | 72 | #1,641 | 320 | #488 |
| 1985 | 62 | #1,815 | 109 | #869 |
| 1984 | 19 | #4,033 | 60 | #1,179 |
| 1983 | 15 | #4,719 | 49 | #1,327 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,274 | 42 | #1,491 |
| 1981 | 19 | #4,033 | 29 | #1,905 |
| 1980 | 25 | #3,342 | 40 | #1,526 |
| 1979 | 20 | #3,801 | 34 | #1,682 |
| 1978 | 15 | #4,490 | 55 | #1,205 |
| 1977 | 14 | #4,709 | 22 | #2,139 |
| 1976 | 11 | #5,287 | 16 | #2,626 |
| 1975 | 12 | #4,912 | 14 | #2,780 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,368 | 8 | #3,900 |
| 1973 | 11 | #4,941 | 9 | #3,499 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,474 | 13 | #2,690 |
| 1971 | 8 | #6,119 | — | — |
| 1970 | — | — | 9 | #3,334 |
| 1968 | — | — | 5 | #4,248 |
| 1966 | 8 | #4,949 | 5 | #4,060 |
| 1965 | 9 | #4,564 | — | — |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,143 | — | — |
| 1963 | 5 | #6,789 | — | — |
| 1962 | 9 | #4,594 | — | — |
| 1961 | 13 | #3,635 | — | — |
| 1960 | 13 | #3,538 | — | — |
| 1959 | 20 | #2,609 | — | — |
| 1958 | 11 | #3,781 | — | — |
| 1921 | 6 | #4,589 | — | — |
| 1915 | 8 | #3,193 | — | — |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).