Dalen
Masculine · “the valley”
Dalen is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,971 boys against 16 girls since 1880.
Dalen has three plausible parents and no way to choose between them. It is a Norwegian word and surname meaning the valley; it is a variant of Dallin, which has a particular history in the American West; and it is a Da- prefix name of the kind American naming produced by the thousand in the late twentieth century. Its peak is 2001.
How old is the name Dalen?
Dalen first appears in US birth records in 1941 — 84 years ago. The typical Dalen alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 1,900 people named Dalen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dalen most popular?
Dalen peaked in 2001, reaching #1316 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 4,545 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dal to Dalen
The story of Dalen
Norwegian surnames are overwhelmingly farm names — a family took the name of the land it worked, and Dalen, Berg, Haugen and Lie are among the most common. Emigration to Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin in the nineteenth century brought thousands of them to America. Separately, Jalen entered American naming in the 1990s after the basketball player Jalen Rose and became one of the most productive templates of the decade, generating Kalen, Dalen, Jaylen and Talen. The American record for Dalen rises in exactly those years, which suggests the third route accounts for most modern bearers even though the first is the older name.
Meaningscholars disagree
the valley, in the Norwegian reading
Norwegian dalen is the definite form of dal, 'valley' — the same word as English dale — and it is a very common Norwegian farm name and surname. That is a genuine source and Norwegian migration to the American upper Midwest was substantial. The second route runs through Dallin, an English surname that became a given name in Latter-day Saint communities. The third is simply Da- plus -len, built the way Jalen and Kalen were. All three are live and the spelling does not decide.
How the name formed
- dal
- Dalen
- Dalen
Related forms: Dalen · Dallin · Daylen
Pronouncing Dalen
DAY-len
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the long a of day. A second saying, DAH-len, follows the Norwegian and is used by families with that connection. Both are current in American use.
Nicknames for Dalen
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
- 1941
- Most boys named
- 200199 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1316reached in 2001
- Change vs 2023
- −46.4%15 in 2025, from 28
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.
Dalen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dalen in Norwegian — same name
- Dallin in English — related form
- Daylen in English — spelling variant
Dalens among us
people named Dalen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Dalen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dalen
- #5861
- Dalen on the 2025 chart
- #896
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dalen went to 15 boys in 2025, but Dallen is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 32, which makes it the 896th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,965 places above the chart.
- Dallen17
- Dalen15
About 1 boy in 53,377 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 113,872 for Dalen itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jacobo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dalen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacobo climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacobo's path sketches the road Dalen is walking now.
Dalen 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
Dalen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dalen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Dale is available inside it as a complete traditional name with the same meaning.
- The spelling is short, phonetic and easy to write.
- It has a genuine Norwegian ancestry available to families who want one.
- Two vowel readings circulate and the spelling does not settle which.
- Dalen, Dallin and Daylen all exist, so records will drift.
- Three possible origins mean the meaning question always needs a qualifier.
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Dalen
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dalens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Dalen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dalen?
- Dalen is one of 2 recorded spellings. Dallen is the more common one — 17 births in 2025 against 15 for Dalen.
- How popular is the name Dalen in 2025?
- Dalen ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dalen?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Dalen — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dalen with classmates?
- Dalen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dalen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dalen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dalen and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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