Baby Name 'Donald' Plummets To An All-Time Low Ranking As Fearing Parents Avoid Naming Children After POTUS

The name 'Donald' has sunk to the least popular it has ever been across the United States, even with its most famous bearer sitting in the Oval Office.

Newly released federal figures show only a few hundred American newborns were given the name in 2025. That pushed 'Donald' down to 690th in the national rankings, the lowest position ever recorded for the name.

The finding came from Social Security Administration records first analysed by the news outlet NOTUS.

A Century-Long Slide To A Record Low

The Social Security Administration draws its rankings from the card applications parents file when a child is born, which makes it the authoritative national source for naming trends. According to NOTUS's review of that data, the agency logged fewer than 400 baby Donalds in 2025. The tally left the name ranked 690th in the country.

'Donald' was once a mainstay of the American nursery. It peaked in 1934, when more than 30,400 babies received the name, and it held a place inside the top 100 as recently as 1990. Anyone can trace that arc through the SSA's public baby names database, which stretches back to 1880.

The decline runs far deeper than the current presidency. In 2004, when the first season of Trump's television programme The Apprentice aired, the name had already dropped to 263rd. By 2013 it sat at 415th, and in 2016, the year Trump won his first term, it fell to 489th. The name nudged upward slightly in 2017 before resuming a fall that cost it more than 200 further places by 2025.

What The Federal Figures Reveal About Cause

The long shape of the data matters when weighing why the name has faded. 'Donald' has been in retreat since the 1930s, a pattern shared by many once-common mid-century names that simply drifted out of fashion. That slide was well underway through decades in which Trump's public profile was rising, not falling.

American naming habits have also fractured. Federal records show parents now spread their choices across a far wider pool of names than earlier generations did, so even famous names claim a smaller share of newborns than they once could.

In that light, the drop looks less like an organised boycott and more like a name that had already lost its shine long ago. Neither the SSA nor NOTUS has linked the 2025 low to any deliberate avoidance of the president.

Whether Trump's polarising standing has added any drag to an already sinking name is not something the numbers can prove. The data captures how many children were named Donald, not why their parents chose otherwise. Any claim about motive therefore sits beyond what the SSA figures support.

Melania, Florida And The Limits Of Presidential Pull

Even Trump's home turf offered no lift. In Florida, a Republican stronghold, parents named just 21 baby boys Donald last year, level with names such as Enoch, Stone and Westley, and behind the likes of Mohammad, Kash, Brandon, Maximus and Keanu, according to the NOTUS analysis.

The first lady has fared no better as a naming muse. 'Melania' broke into the top 1,000 girls' names only once, in 2017, and vanished from the list before and after that single appearance. The pattern undercuts any sense that the Trump brand carries into the delivery room.

The contrast with the president's wider appetite for his own name is stark. Trump has pushed to stamp it on currency, buildings, airports and even the nation's 250th anniversary events. The White House did not return a request for comment from NOTUS.

The ballot box has handed Donald Trump the presidency twice, yet the nursery has delivered a quieter and far more consistent verdict.