Dax
Masculine
Dax is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 11,918 boys against 16 girls since 1880.
Dax is one syllable and ends on that crisp -x that English gives to Max, Rex and Jax. It began as a place and a surname in Gascony, in the far southwest of France, and crossed into first-name use through fiction — a novel in the 1960s, a television series in the 1990s. Short, hard-edged, and spelled the only way it can be spelled.
How old is the name Dax?
Dax first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Dax is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 11,500 people named Dax are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dax most popular?
Dax peaked in 2019, reaching #413 nationally. Today it ranks #692, 279 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Where it comes from
From Dax (Gascon town) to Dax
The story of Dax
Dax is first of all a place: a town in Gascony known since Roman times for its thermal waters, and a surname carried by families from that corner of France. It reached American first names through print — Harold Robbins gave the hero of his 1966 novel The Adventurers the name Diego "Dax" Xenos, and the film that followed put the sound in front of a wider audience. It surfaced again in the 1990s as the surname of the Trill characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a spelling viewers heard week after week. Its recent rise in the United States also runs alongside Daxton, a longer form that Dax shortens neatly.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As a given name, Dax carries no established translation. What is documented is the source: Dax is a spa town in the Landes region of southwestern France, whose name traces back through the medieval form d'Acqs to the Roman settlement built around its hot springs, and it survives as a French surname. The English surname Dax is separate and of uncertain origin. None of that was attached to the first name as a meaning — it arrived as a sound and a surname, not as a word.
How the name formed
- DaxGascon town
- DaxFrench surname
- Daxgiven name
Related forms: Dax · Dax · Daxton
Pronouncing Dax
DAKS
One syllable, rhyming with fax. There is no competing pronunciation in English, and the French town is said the same way.
Nicknames for Dax
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
- 1967
- Most boys named
- 2019749 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #413reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- −10.3%393 in 2025, from 438
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.
Dax in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dax in French — same name
- Dax in Dutch — same name
- Daxton in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Daxs among us
people named Dax are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,346 born in 2025 was named Dax
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 Jaquan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dax's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jaquan climbed just as high around 1999, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jaquan's path sketches the road Dax is walking now.
Dax 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 Dax is headed
Dax is easing off slowly — about 18% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Dax beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dax in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, spelled the only way it sounds — almost nobody will need it repeated or corrected in writing.
- Needs no nickname and shrinks to nothing, so it reads the same on a kindergarten cubby and a work email.
- Identical in French, Dutch and English, with no respelling required when it crosses a border.
- Works as the natural short form if the longer Daxton is ever used on paper.
- It sits in a crowded sound family — Max, Jax, Pax, Zax — so it can be misheard on the phone or in a noisy classroom, and it may echo other boys' names in the same year group.
- The wave is recent and the bearers are overwhelmingly young, so for now the name reads as a child's name rather than one with adult company behind it.
- Rhyming with fax, tax and axe gives playground wordplay an easy hook, though the words themselves are harmless enough.
- With a short surname the whole name can land very clipped; it tends to sit better with something longer after it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Dax
Masculine · #692 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Daxs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,500 people named Dax are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dax in 2025?
- Dax ranks #692 among US boy names in 2025, with 393 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dax?
- About 1 in every 4,346 US boys born in 2025 was named Dax — 393 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dax with classmates?
- Dax will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dax
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dexter#692 · Tomas#691 · Donald#690 · Idris#694 · Sevyn#695 · Mac#695 · Duke#695 · Westin#688
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dax? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dax and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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