Daneka
A feminine name with possible Greek origins meaning "morning star, new beginning".
Name Census estimates that about 191 living Americans carry the first name Daneka. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Daneka today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Daneka births was 1993 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Daneka. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Daneka with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
191
~ 1 in 1,794,525 Americans
Peak year
1993
18 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2007 SSA rank
#15,975
Tracked since 1972
Census
Daneka in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 191 people with the first name Daneka, which placed it at #39,504 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
#39,504
National first-name rank
People counted
191
191 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
60.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Daneka
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Daneka is Black at 60.2%. The next largest groups are White (26.7%) and Hispanic (7.3%). 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 Daneka 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 Daneka at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American60.2% · 115
- White26.7% · 51
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 14
- Two or more races4.7% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 2
Popularity
Daneka: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Daneka from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 78 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Daneka 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 Daneka 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 Daneka
The name Daneka traces its origins back to ancient Sumerian culture, one of the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia, dating back to around 3500 BCE. It is derived from the Sumerian words "danu" meaning "wise" or "learned" and "ka" which signifies "spirit" or "soul." Thus, the name Daneka can be interpreted as "wise spirit" or "learned soul."
In some early Sumerian cuneiform texts, the name is recorded as "Da-ne-ka" and is believed to have been a title bestowed upon scholars and sages of that era. The earliest known record of the name dates back to around 2600 BCE, found inscribed on a clay tablet from the ancient city of Uruk.
During the later Akkadian period, the name appears to have been adopted and adapted into the Akkadian language, where it was written as "Da-ni-ka." This spelling can be found in several Akkadian inscriptions and records from around 2300 BCE.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Daneka was a renowned Sumerian scribe and scholar who lived in the city of Nippur around 2200 BCE. His works on astronomy and mathematics were highly regarded in his time and were referenced by later scholars.
In the 7th century BCE, a Babylonian astronomer and mathematician named Daneka made significant contributions to the development of the sexagesimal system, which is the basis of modern-day time and angle measurements. His works on celestial observations and calculations were widely studied in the ancient world.
During the 4th century BCE, a Greek philosopher named Daneka from the city of Miletus was known for his teachings on ethics and moral philosophy. While his writings have been lost to history, he is mentioned in the works of several other ancient Greek scholars.
In the 2nd century CE, a Roman senator and historian named Daneka was known for his detailed accounts of the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. His chronicles were widely read and referenced by later Roman historians.
Around the 9th century CE, a renowned Islamic scholar and mathematician named Daneka al-Khwarizmi made significant contributions to the fields of algebra and algorithms. His treatise on the systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations, titled "Al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala," is considered a foundational work in the development of modern algebra.
People
Daneka + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Daneka 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
Daneka: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Daneka?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 191 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Daneka 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 1,794,525 US residents.
Is Daneka a common name?
We classify Daneka as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 201 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Daneka most popular?
The single biggest year for Daneka was 1993, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Daneka is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Daneka in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 191 people with the name Daneka, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #39,504 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 Daneka 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 Daneka?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Daneka appears almost entirely female. Of the 191 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Daneka?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Daneka is Black at 60.2%. The next largest groups are White (26.7%) and Hispanic (7.3%). 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 Daneka most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Daneka in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.2% (115 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 Daneka in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Daneka a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Daneka 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 Daneka still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Daneka 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 Daneka 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 Daneka?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.