Dagen
Reportedly of Scandinavian origin meaning "new day" or "dawn".
Name Census estimates that about 384 living Americans carry the first name Dagen. It is a predominantly male name (93.1% of registrations). The average person named Dagen today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dagen births was 2004 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dagen. 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
384
~ 1 in 892,589 Americans
Peak year
2004
31 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2023 SSA rank
#11,100
Tracked since 1991
Census
Dagen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 393 people with the first name Dagen, which placed it at #24,486 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#24,486
National first-name rank
People counted
393
393 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dagen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dagen is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.6%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dagen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dagen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.0% · 326
- Hispanic or Latino6.6% · 26
- Two or more races4.3% · 17
- Black or African American3.6% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Dagen
Dagen leans heavily male at 93.1% of total registrations, but 27 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Dagen as a male name
- Ranked #11,100 in 2023
- 6 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2004 (24 births)
Dagen as a female name
- Ranked #14,258 in 2007
- 7 female births in 2007
- Peak: 2004 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dagen leans strongly male. 338 people counted with this name were male (85.4%), compared with 58 female bearers (14.6%).
Popularity
Dagen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dagen from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 205 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
Dagen 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 Dagen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dagen
The name Dagen is of Scandinavian origin, derived from the Old Norse word "dagr," which means "day." It is believed to have emerged during the Viking Age, between the 8th and 11th centuries, when Scandinavian culture and language had a significant influence across much of Northern Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dagen can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of stories and historical accounts written in the 13th and 14th centuries. These sagas often featured characters with names that reflected the Norse tradition of naming children after natural phenomena or traits.
In the 12th century, a Norwegian chieftain named Dagen Eilivsson was mentioned in the Heimskringla, a collection of sagas about the Norwegian kings written by the renowned Icelandic scholar and historian, Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241). Dagen Eilivsson was a prominent figure in the conflicts between the Norwegian king and the Birchlegs, a faction of rebels.
Another notable individual with the name Dagen was Dagen Taftes, a Danish nobleman who lived in the 14th century. He was a prominent figure in the court of King Valdemar IV (1320-1375) and played a significant role in the political affairs of the time.
In the 16th century, a Swedish military commander named Dagen Andersson (c. 1520-1590) gained fame for his service during the Northern Seven Years' War between Sweden and Denmark-Norway. He was renowned for his tactical prowess and leadership on the battlefield.
Dagen Gustavsson (1642-1718), a Swedish merchant and shipowner, was also a notable figure in the 17th century. He played a significant role in the development of Sweden's maritime trade and was instrumental in establishing trade routes with various parts of Europe and beyond.
While the name Dagen has its roots in Scandinavian culture and history, it has also been adopted and used in various parts of the world over the centuries, though its popularity has remained relatively limited compared to other Scandinavian names.
People
Dagen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dagen 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
Dagen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dagen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 384 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dagen 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 892,589 US residents.
Is Dagen a common name?
We classify Dagen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 389 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dagen most popular?
The single biggest year for Dagen was 2004, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dagen is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dagen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 393 people with the name Dagen, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,486 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dagen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dagen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dagen leans strongly male. 338 people counted with this name were male (85.4%), compared with 58 female bearers (14.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dagen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dagen is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.6%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dagen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dagen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.0% (326 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dagen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dagen a male name?
Yes, 93.1% of people registered as Dagen 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.
Is Dagen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dagen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dagen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people share the name Dagen?
Want to know how many people share the name Dagen? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.