Dahn
An English masculine name derived from the Biblical name Daniel.
Name Census estimates that about 19 living Americans carry the first name Dahn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Dahn today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dahn births was 1968 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dahn. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Dahn. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
19
~ 1 in 18,039,702 Americans
Peak year
1968
6 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
1994 SSA rank
#8,233
Tracked since 1965
Census
Dahn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 167 people with the first name Dahn, which placed it at #42,759 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
#42,759
National first-name rank
People counted
167
167 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dahn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dahn is White at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.8%). 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 Dahn 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 Dahn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.9% · 85
- Black or African American18.0% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.8% · 28
- Two or more races6.6% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.6% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Dahn
Dahn is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 21 total registrations, 5 (23.8%) were male and 16 (76.2%) were female.
Dahn as a male name
- Ranked #9,070 in 1994
- 5 male births in 1994
- Peak: 1994 (5 births)
Dahn as a female name
- Ranked #8,233 in 1970
- 5 female births in 1970
- Peak: 1968 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dahn on both sides of the split. Of the 161 people counted with this name, 83 were male (51.6%) and 78 were female (48.4%).
Popularity
Dahn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dahn from the 1960s through to the 1990s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 11 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Dahn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dahn 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 Dahn 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 Dahn
The name Dahn is believed to have originated in the ancient Germanic language, with roots tracing back to the 6th century AD. It is thought to be derived from the Old High German word "dun," which means "from the hills" or "from the highlands." This suggests that the name may have been initially used to identify individuals who hailed from mountainous or hilly regions in what is now modern-day Germany.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Dahn can be found in the Hildebrandslied, an Old High German heroic poem from the 8th century. In this text, a character named Dahn is mentioned, although little is known about the specific individual behind the name.
During the Middle Ages, the name Dahn gained some popularity among the German nobility. One notable figure was Dahn von Staufenberg, a German knight who fought in the Crusades in the 12th century. He was born in 1145 and died in 1211.
In the 16th century, a German scholar and humanist named Johannes Dahn (1528-1589) made significant contributions to the field of philosophy and theology. His writings on ethics and morality were widely read and influential during the Renaissance period.
Another individual of note was Felix Dahn (1834-1912), a German jurist, historian, and novelist. He is best known for his historical novels set in the era of the Germanic migrations, which helped shape the romanticized view of the ancient Germanic tribes in 19th-century German literature.
More recently, Dahn was the first name of Dahn Yoga, a South Korean yoga master and founder of the Dahn Yoga movement. He was born in 1939 and passed away in 2022, leaving behind a legacy of promoting mind-body wellness practices.
While the name Dahn has its roots in the German language, it has also found usage in other cultures and regions over the centuries. However, its historical significance remains closely tied to its Germanic origins and the individuals who bore this name throughout various eras.
People
Dahn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dahn 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
Dahn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dahn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dahn 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 18,039,702 US residents.
Is Dahn a common name?
We classify Dahn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 39.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 21 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dahn most popular?
The single biggest year for Dahn was 1968, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dahn is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dahn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 167 people with the name Dahn, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,759 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 Dahn 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 Dahn?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dahn on both sides of the split. Of the 161 people counted with this name, 83 were male (51.6%) and 78 were female (48.4%). 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 Dahn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dahn is White at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.8%). 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 Dahn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dahn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.9% (85 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 Dahn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dahn a female name?
Yes, 76.2% of people registered as Dahn in the SSA data are female. 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 Dahn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dahn 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 Dahn 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 have the name Dahn?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Dahn, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.