Daly
From Gaelic meaning "from the assembly place".
Name Census estimates that about 350 living Americans carry the first name Daly. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 86.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Daly today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Daly births was 2002 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Daly. 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
350
~ 1 in 979,298 Americans
Peak year
2002
21 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2022 SSA rank
#12,425
Tracked since 1988
Gender
Gender distribution for Daly
Daly leans heavily female at 86.5% of total registrations, but 48 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Daly as a male name
- Ranked #12,738 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 2006 (7 births)
Daly as a female name
- Ranked #12,425 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2002 (21 births)
Popularity
Daly: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Daly from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 111 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Daly remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Daly 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 Daly 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 Daly
The name Daly is derived from the Irish Gaelic word "dail," which means "assembly" or "meeting place." This name has its origins in ancient Celtic culture and can be traced back to the early medieval period in Ireland.
The name Daly is closely associated with the Dáil Éireann, the principal chamber of the Irish parliament. It is believed that the name may have originally referred to someone who lived near or was associated with an important meeting place or assembly area.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Daly dates back to the 12th century. In the Annals of the Four Masters, a historical chronicle compiled in the 17th century, there is a reference to a man named Daly O'Hanlon, who was a chief of the O'Hanlon clan in County Armagh, Ireland.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Daly. One of the most renowned was Denis Daly (1638-1690), an Irish Jacobite soldier and landowner who fought for the Catholic King James II during the Williamite War in Ireland. Another was Augustin Daly (1838-1899), an American playwright, theater manager, and critic who was influential in the development of American theater in the late 19th century.
In the field of literature, the name Daly is associated with the Irish writer and politician Dominic Daly (1798-1868), who served as a member of the British House of Commons and wrote several works on Irish history and politics.
In sports, one of the most famous bearers of the name Daly was John Daly (born 1966), an American professional golfer known for his prodigious driving distance and colorful personality. He won two major championships, the 1991 PGA Championship and the 1995 Open Championship.
Another notable individual with the name Daly was Michael Daly (1924-2008), an Irish Republican Army member and writer who was actively involved in the Irish republican movement and served as the editor of the Irish Democrat newspaper.
People
Daly + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Daly 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
Daly: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Daly?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 350 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Daly 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 979,298 US residents.
Is Daly a common name?
We classify Daly as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 356 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Daly most popular?
The single biggest year for Daly was 2002, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Daly is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Daly a female name?
Yes, 86.5% of people registered as Daly 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.
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.