Dayton
Feminine · “ditch farmstead”
Dayton is given to both — 636 girls and 15,759 boys since 1880. See Dayton as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Dayton, Ohio is named for Jonathan Dayton, who at twenty-six was the youngest man to sign the Constitution. He never lived there; he was a land speculator who bought a share of the site, and the city carries his surname as an investment record.
How old is the name Dayton?
Dayton first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Dayton alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 600 people named Dayton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dayton most popular?
Dayton peaked in 2002, reaching #4381 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 2,165 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dic tun to Dayton
The story of Dayton
Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey signed the Constitution in 1787 and was later Speaker of the House; he and three partners bought a large tract in the Ohio country, and the settlement founded there in 1796 took his name. The city became a manufacturing center and the home of the Wright brothers. Its use as a given name follows the general American movement of place names into first names, and it is used for both sexes; the female side has its best year in 2002, later than the male one, which is the usual pattern for a surname name crossing over.
Meaningscholars disagree
ditch farmstead, or Deighton's farm
The English surname Dayton descends from places called Deighton in Yorkshire, generally read as Old English dic, a ditch or dyke, plus tun, a farmstead. A second route derives it from a personal name plus tun. The American city is named for a man who bore the surname, so the given name arrives at three removes: element, place, surname, person, city, name.
How the name formed
- dic tun
- Deighton
- Dayton
- Dayton
Related forms: Deighton · Daton
Pronouncing Dayton
DAY-tun
Two syllables with the stress on the first and the second reduced. Identical to the Ohio city.
Nicknames for Dayton
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
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 200831 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4381reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- +70.0%17 in 2025, from 10
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.
Dayton in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Deighton in English — related form
- Daton in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Daytons among us
people named Dayton are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Dayton
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 Leonda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dayton's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leonda climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leonda's path sketches the road Dayton is walking now.
Dayton 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
Dayton beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dayton in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A real American city with a documented and quite specific history behind it.
- The -ton ending sits comfortably in current American naming.
- Fully unisex, which some families count as an advantage.
- It is more common for boys than girls in the United States.
- The Ohio city is the first association for most Americans.
- The -ton family is closely dated to the last thirty years.
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What they receive
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Dayton
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Daytons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Dayton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dayton in 2025?
- Dayton ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dayton?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Dayton — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dayton with classmates?
- Dayton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dayton
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dayton? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dayton and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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