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Denton

#3,528 in 2025Boys' name

Valley, den + enclosure; settlement, town

Denton has been given to 5,143 babies in the U.S. since 1881. In 2025 it ranked #3,528 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1994, with 89 recorded.

Babies named Denton, 2025

1 in 104,000

Denton over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Denton: meaning, origin, and history

Valley, den + enclosure; settlement, town

place names

What Denton means

Denton means “valley, den + enclosure; settlement, town”, associated with denu and tūn.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Old English denu (“valley, den”) + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Denton (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Denton is used in English. Its origins include place names.

Denton comes through Old English denu.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Denton is pronounced /ˈdɛn.tən/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,143 boys were recorded with the name Denton between 1881 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 89 in 1994; its best national rank was #723 in 1881.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,032 in 2020 to #3,528 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,437 in 2015 to #3,528 in 2025.

How common is Denton?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 104,000
32 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 53,400
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#3,528
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
71,810 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Denton sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 71,810 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Denton. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Dentons were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Denton was born before 1974 — so the typical Denton is around 51 today.

Median birth year
1974
About 51 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
13.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
22.1%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,570
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 13.0% of all recorded uses (670).

Is Denton rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+478
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−496
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,091
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.62×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
36.0%
Peak was 1994 (89)
Years since peak
31
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#723
1881

Spellings of Denton

Denton is not the most common spelling — Dalton is, with 13.0% against Denton's 0.78%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Denton is used

Across 1910–2025, Denton was most concentrated in Oklahoma — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 110,550 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Oklahoma1 in 25,000
  2. 2Texas1 in 33,333
  3. 3Pennsylvania1 in 50,000
  4. 4Arkansas1 in 100,000
  5. 5California1 in 100,000
  6. 6Kansas1 in 100,000
  7. 7Kentucky1 in 100,000
  8. 8Missouri1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Denton has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Denton around the world

Where Denton ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2022
    #4,002
    in 2022
  • Canada
    1991–2016
    #2,748
    in 2016
  • South Australia
    1957–1983
    #443
    in 1983

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Denton

People whose public names include Denton, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Denton by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#3,528
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 496
Best rank ever
#723
1881
Peak year
1994
89 that year
First recorded
1881
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,143
Count in 2025
32

Names similar to Denton

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

DenzelDenverDeltonMaxtonWaltonDenimGastonKeltonHiltonDenzilDennieSuttonAustonNewtonWiltonBrytonFultonLawtonDennyBartonHustonAlstonLeytonBenton

Names with a curve like Denton

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Denton, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

HilarioMarshalLavonNilesFaustinoReyesRosendoCaesarLeopoldoBlasClementeFermin

Sibling names for Denton

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Denton

Top names of 1994, Denton's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1881Boys' names starting with D