Dale
Masculine · Old English roots · “valley”
Dale is given to both — 278,156 boys and 21,887 girls since 1880. See Dale as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Dale began as a piece of English landscape — the word for a valley between hills, the same word that names the Yorkshire Dales. It became a surname for the people who lived in one, then a first name that Americans took up in the late nineteenth century and kept for generations. One syllable, spelled exactly as it sounds, and never once in need of explanation.
How old is the name Dale?
Dale first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Dale alive today was born around 1954, making them about 71 years old. About 164,000 people named Dale are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dale most popular?
Dale peaked in 1952, reaching #46 nationally. Today it ranks #1409, 1,363 places below that high. See the whole 1952 chart.
Dale appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From dæl (Old English, valley) to Dale
The story of Dale
Dale is a place turned into a person. In Old English, dæl meant a valley, and in the north of England, where Norse settlement left dalr in the ground, it survives in names like Swaledale and Wensleydale. Anyone living in such a hollow could be recorded as being 'of the dale', and by the Middle Ages that had hardened into an inherited surname. Like many English surnames, it crossed to America and then crossed again, out of the family-name column and into the first-name one, where it settled in for a long, unhurried run.
Meaning
valley
From Old English dæl, a valley or dell, cognate with Old Norse dalr — the same element sitting inside northern English place names.
How the name formed
- dælOld English, valley
- del / daleMiddle English
- de la Dale, atte Dalemedieval bynames
- DaleEnglish surname
- Dalegiven name
Related forms: Dahl · Dahl · Dal · Thal · Dell
Pronouncing Dale
DAYL
One syllable, rhyming with pail. Identical to the English word, so no one hesitates over it.
Nicknames for Dale
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 19577,866 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #46reached in 1952
- Change vs 2022
- +12.2%129 in 2025, from 115
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Dale in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dahl in Norwegian — related form
- Dahl in Swedish — related form
- Dal in Danish — related form
- Thal in German — related form
- Dell in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Ohio, Texas.
Dales among us
people named Dale are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 13,241 born in 2025 was named Dale
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Melvin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dale's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Melvin climbed just as high around 1926, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Melvin's path sketches the road Dale is walking now.
Dale sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Dale is headed
Dale should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Dale beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dale in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds and identical to an ordinary English word — almost never misspelled or mispronounced.
- A single syllable, which balances easily against longer or multi-syllable surnames and middle names.
- On American records continuously since the nineteenth century, with a long stretch of heavy use in the middle of the twentieth.
- Recognizable across English-speaking countries, and close to the Scandinavian and German Dahl, which carries the same valley sense.
- It is strongly represented among older generations, and many Americans will have met more grown Dales than young ones. On a small child it reads as a family revival rather than a current pick.
- A child named Dale today would likely be the only one in the class — pleasant for some families, a little exposed for others.
- It has been given to American girls as well as boys, though the boys' side has always been much larger. Occasional double-takes are possible, and nothing more.
- Because it is also a common noun, phrases like 'over hill and dale' may come up. Mild, and it fades fast.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Dale
Masculine · Old English roots · #1409 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dales are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 164,000 people named Dale are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dale in 2025?
- Dale ranks #1409 among US boy names in 2025, with 129 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dale?
- About 1 in every 13,241 US boys born in 2025 was named Dale — 129 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dale with classmates?
- Dale will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dale
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Virgil#1409 · Fox#1409 · Malikai#1409 · Kolt#1409 · Linden#1409 · Huxton#1409 · Iverson#1409 · Cayde#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dale? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dale and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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