Meaning and history
From an English surname meaning “son of David,” Dawson was later used as a given name and became widely popularized by the title character of the television drama Dawson’s Creek (1998–2003). In the United States, the number of boys given the name rose tenfold between 1997 and 1999, and it received another boost in 2014 after being used for a main character in the film The Best of Me.
20062006: 1,550 births, rank #233
2007: 1,409 births, rank #250
2008: 1,292 births, rank #269
2009: 1,154 births, rank #284
2010: 1,168 births, rank #289
20112011: 1,012 births, rank #315
2012: 1,036 births, rank #316
2013: 1,036 births, rank #320
2014: 1,083 births, rank #320
2015: 1,594 births, rank #238
20162016: 1,795 births, rank #216
2017: 2,018 births, rank #196
2018: 2,101 births, rank #194
2019: 1,960 births, rank #202
2020: 1,918 births, rank #197
20212021: 1,832 births, rank #207
2022: 2,047 births, rank #184
2023: 2,451 births, rank #149
2024: 2,587 births, rank #139
20252025: 2,487 births, rank #143
Dawson moved from #139 to #143 for boys between 2024 and 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 1999, with 2,802 births.