Dave
Dave is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 76 births. Its best rank was 95th, in 1881.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 760.00% of boys
- Peak year
- 19593,308 births
- Best rank
- #95in 1881
- Since 1880
- 64,328people given the name
The story in the numbers
64,328 boys have been named Dave in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1959, with 3,308 births — 0.15% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 76 births in 2024, against 3,308 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1956, and the 1960s alone account for 25%. It has spent 114 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 2 of them in the top 100.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Dave | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,339 | |
| 1890s | 1,281 | |
| 1900s | 1,133 | |
| 1910s | 2,716 | |
| 1920s | 3,432 | |
| 1930s | 4,818 | |
| 1940s | 11,740 | |
| 1950s | 14,840 | |
| 1960s | 15,774 | |
| 1970s | 2,591 | |
| 1980s | 1,518 | |
| 1990s | 1,106 | |
| 2000s | 987 | |
| 2010s | 716 | |
| 2020s | 337 |
In 1959, its biggest year
Dave was the 119th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1959 were Michael, David, James, John and Robert. See all of 1959.
Names that rose and fell with Dave
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
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.