Dakota Boy & girl
How popular is Dakota?
#295 girl name in 2025
1,035 baby girls were named Dakota in the US in 2025, making it the 295th most popular girl name. Another 1,074 boys got the name (#319 for boys).
Dakota popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #295 for girls (▼ 22 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 1,035 girls, 1,074 boys |
| 10-year trend | Falling (-22% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #242 in 2015, #257 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 2006 (1,839 girls) |
| Highest rank | #190 in 2006 |
| First recorded | 1915 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 44% boys, 56% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 2% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Dakota counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Dakota family of names ranked #306 for girls in 2025 (#277 the year before), with 1,070 babies in all.
| Spelling | Girls in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dakota | 1,035 | 97% |
| Dakotah | 35 | 3% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Dakota is most popular
Babies named Dakota per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Delaware: 2.0 per 1,000 (23 girls)
- Maryland: 2.0 per 1,000 (207 girls)
- Mississippi: 1.9 per 1,000 (89 girls)
- Louisiana: 1.7 per 1,000 (148 girls)
- District of Columbia: 1.7 per 1,000 (20 girls)
Dakota by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 8 | #3,133 |
| 1920s | 6 | #4,462 |
| 1950s | 31 | #2,595 |
| 1960s | 63 | #3,511 |
| 1970s | 105 | #3,776 |
| 1980s | 565 | #1,045 |
| 1990s | 9,151 | #246 |
| 2000s | 12,404 | #190 |
| 2010s | 12,191 | #227 |
| 2020s | 6,934 | #257 |
Girl names about as popular as Dakota
Questions
- Is Dakota a boy or girl name?
- Dakota is used for both. Over the last 10 years, 44% of babies named Dakota were boys and 56% were girls.
- How popular is the name Dakota?
- 1,035 baby girls were named Dakota in the US in 2025, making it the 295th most popular girl name. Another 1,074 boys got the name (#319 for boys).
- When was Dakota most popular?
- Dakota peaked in 2006, when 1,839 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #190 in 2006.
- How many people are named Dakota?
- 134,576 babies have been named Dakota in the US since 1880. We estimate about 132,184 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 25.
- Where is Dakota most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Dakota was most common in Delaware, at 2.0 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.