Head to head · Boys' names
Dallas vs Warren
#238 vs #240 in 2025
Dallas is a whisker ahead (#238 vs #240 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Dallas is holding its place on the charts, Warren is back after a long quiet spell. On momentum, Warren has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Warren leads 3 measures of 6; Dallas leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Dallas #363, Warren #95 — Warren higher
- 1890s: Dallas #335, Warren #115 — Warren higher
- 1900s: Dallas #321, Warren #126 — Warren higher
- 1910s: Dallas #338, Warren #103 — Warren higher
- 1920s: Dallas #292, Warren #60 — Warren higher
- 1930s: Dallas #264, Warren #100 — Warren higher
- 1940s: Dallas #297, Warren #106 — Warren higher
- 1950s: Dallas #363, Warren #133 — Warren higher
- 1960s: Dallas #436, Warren #164 — Warren higher
- 1970s: Dallas #421, Warren #225 — Warren higher
- 1980s: Dallas #346, Warren #281 — Warren higher
- 1990s: Dallas #279, Warren #395 — Dallas higher
- 2000s: Dallas #343, Warren #503 — Dallas higher
- 2010s: Dallas #292, Warren #419 — Dallas higher
- 2020s: Dallas #254, Warren #305 — Dallas higher
Warren stood higher in 11 of 15 decades; Dallas has held the lead since the 1990s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Dallas | Warren |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #363 | #95 |
| 1890s | #335 | #115 |
| 1900s | #321 | #126 |
| 1910s | #338 | #103 |
| 1920s | #292 | #60 |
| 1930s | #264 | #100 |
| 1940s | #297 | #106 |
| 1950s | #363 | #133 |
| 1960s | #436 | #164 |
| 1970s | #421 | #225 |
| 1980s | #346 | #281 |
| 1990s | #279 | #395 |
| 2000s | #343 | #503 |
| 2010s | #292 | #419 |
| 2020s | #254 | #305 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Dallas
most likely 'meadow dwelling' or 'meadow by the waterfall'
The Scottish place name behind it is read two ways. One reading takes it from Brythonic or Pictish elements meaning roughly 'meadow' and 'dwelling'; the other from Gaelic dail ('meadow, haugh') with eas ('waterfall'). Both point at low green ground beside water, which is why the two readings sit together comfortably rather than canceling each other out.
Dallas (lands in Moray, Scotland) → Dolays (medieval Scottish surname) → Dallas (Scottish surname) → Dallas (given name)
How it traveled
The lands of Dallas lie in Moray, and by the medieval period a family had taken their name from them, appearing in Scottish records in forms such as Dolays before settling into the modern spelling. Emigration carried the surname to North America, where — as happened to Scottish surnames generally — it began to be handed out as a first name.
Warren
either "enclosure, game park" or "guard, protect"
Two serious roads lead to the same spelling. One is a place: La Varenne in Normandy, from Old French varenne, an enclosed park where game was kept — the same word that gives English its rabbit warren. The other is the Germanic personal name Warin, built on a root meaning to guard or protect, which came into French as Guarin and Garin. Genealogists have argued for both, and many English Warren families can be traced to one or the other without settling the question for the name as a whole.
Warin → Guarin → Warren (surname) → Warren (given name)
How it traveled
The name arrived in England with the Normans after 1066, carried by families whose surname pointed back to Normandy — either to a place called La Varenne or to an ancestor named Warin. For centuries it stayed a surname, and a well-established one.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Dallas
DAL-us
Stress on the first syllable. The second is an unstressed 'us' or 'is' depending on region; both are ordinary and neither needs correcting.
- Dal — The usual clipped form, informal and mostly spoken rather than written.
- Dally — An affectionate family form, used more with small children than with adults.
Warren
WOR-en
Stress on the first syllable. Most American speakers say it so the first part matches the word war; in some regions it comes closer to WAHR-en. Both are unremarkable and neither needs correcting.
- Ren — The most common short form in current use, and also a standalone given name in its own right.
- Renny — Informal extension of Ren, mostly used within families.
- W — Initial-only nickname, typical of school and workplace shorthand rather than home use.
Who has carried each name
Dallas
No documented entry for Dallas yet.
Warren
Warren Buffett (b. 1930) — The "Oracle of Omaha" investor
Warren Beatty (b. 1937) — Bonnie and Clyde star and Oscar-winning director
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Dallas if you want…
- a name holding steadyDallas is holding its place on the charts
Choose Warren if you want…
- a name on the way upup 103 places on the charts in five years
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Dallas
Strengths
- Unbroken presence in American records since the earliest years of national name statistics — long familiarity, without ever having been a crowd.
- A spelling nobody has to be told twice: the city has taught it to every English speaker.
- Given to both boys and girls, so the name itself needs no adjustment either way.
To consider
- The place association is unavoidable. Most people will think of the Texas city, the football team, or the television series that ran from the late 1970s into the early 1990s, and some will hear the city's link to the Kennedy assassination.
- Strongest in Texas, Georgia and California — inside Texas especially, the name and the city are hard to separate, which may read as local pride or as a lot to carry.
- It leans boy in the records. A girl named Dallas is in a real but smaller group, and may occasionally be assumed a boy on paper before she is met in person.
Warren
Strengths
- One standard spelling that English speakers already read and write correctly on first sight.
- A documented record stretching back to Norman England, first as a surname and then, for well over a century, as a given name.
- Works at every age: it sits comfortably on a toddler, a teenager and an eighty-year-old.
To consider
- It still reads as a name of older generations to many Americans, since the bulk of living Warrens were born decades ago. That is changing, but a young Warren may be the only one of his age anyone knows.
- Warren is also an ordinary English noun — a maze of rabbit tunnels, and by extension any crowded warren of rooms. Most people never think of it, but the word is there.
- It remains a common surname and has been prominent in American public life as one, which can occasionally cause a beat of hesitation about which name is which.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Dallas and Warren in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Dallas and Warren?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Dallas and Warren — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Dallas or Warren — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Dallas or Warren?
- Dallas, in 2025: Dallas ranked #238 with 1,475 babies; Warren ranked #240 with 1,471 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Dallas or Warren?
- Warren. Over the last five years Dallas moved up 31 places; Warren moved up 103 places.
- Which is the older name, Dallas or Warren?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Dallas and Warren?
- About 56,000 people named Dallas are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 89,500 people named Warren are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Dallass or Warrens in the classroom?
- Dallas will almost certainly be the only one in school. Warren will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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