Dagan
A masculine name of Mesopotamian origin meaning "Child of corn" or "Bringer of bread".
Name Census estimates that about 1,061 living Americans carry the first name Dagan. It is a predominantly male name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Dagan today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dagan births was 2003 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dagan. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 323,048 Americans
Peak year
2003
63 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,673
Tracked since 1969
Gender
Gender distribution for Dagan
Out of the 1,086 babies given the name Dagan since 1880, 99.1% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Dagan as a male name
- Ranked #12,673 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (58 births)
Dagan as a female name
- Ranked #16,334 in 2003
- 5 female births in 2003
- Peak: 2000 (5 births)
Popularity
Dagan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dagan from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 484 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dagan by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dagan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dagans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Texas, California, Virginia recorded the most babies named Dagan, while Michigan, Indiana, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dagan
The given name Dagan has its roots in Semitic languages, particularly in the ancient Mesopotamian regions of the Middle East. The name is derived from the Akkadian word "daganu," which means "grain" or "fertile land." It is believed to have originated around 2500-2000 BCE during the Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations.
The name Dagan was associated with the Semitic god of agriculture and fertility, who was widely worshipped in ancient Mesopotamia. This deity was known as Dagan, Dagon, or Baal-Dagon, and was revered by the Amorites, Canaanites, and Philistines. The name Dagan appears in various ancient texts, including the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible, where it is mentioned in the Book of Judges and the First Book of Samuel.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dagan can be found in the Mari Archives, a collection of cuneiform tablets from the 18th century BCE that document the city-state of Mari in modern-day Syria. These tablets mention individuals with the name Dagan, indicating its use during the Old Babylonian period.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Dagan. One of the most famous was Dagan I, a king of the Akkadian Empire who ruled around 2350 BCE. Another notable figure was Dagan-ashurid, a governor of the city of Terqa during the Old Babylonian period, mentioned in the Mari tablets.
In the medieval era, Dagan was a common name among the Druze community in Lebanon and Syria. One prominent figure was Dagan al-Atassi (1836-1920), a Syrian intellectual and poet who played a significant role in the Arab Renaissance movement.
During the 20th century, Dagan was the name of several notable individuals, including Dagan Siman Tov (1896-1987), an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset, and Dagan Cohen (1933-2007), an Israeli writer and translator.
Another individual with this name was Meir Dagan (1945-2016), a former director of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, who served from 2002 to 2011 and played a crucial role in shaping Israel's security policies.
People
Dagan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dagan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dagan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dagan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,061 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dagan going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 323,048 US residents.
Is Dagan a common name?
We classify Dagan as "Rare". It ranks above 90.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,086 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dagan most popular?
The single biggest year for Dagan was 2003, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dagan is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Dagan a male name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Dagan in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.