Dania
A feminine name with Hebrew origins, meaning "God is my judge".
Name Census estimates that about 8,317 living Americans carry the first name Dania. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dania today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dania births was 2007 (313 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dania. 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 Dania with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.3K
~ 1 in 41,211 Americans
Peak year
2007
313 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
1993 SSA rank
#1,099
Tracked since 1943
Census
Dania in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,962 people with the first name Dania, which placed it at #2,202 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
#2,202
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,962 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
69.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dania
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dania is Hispanic at 69.5%. The next largest groups are White (17.3%) and Black (8.8%). 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 Dania 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 Dania at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino69.5% · 8,319
- White17.3% · 2,070
- Black or African American8.8% · 1,050
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 353
- Two or more races1.3% · 156
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 14
Gender
Gender distribution for Dania
Out of the 8,592 babies given the name Dania since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Dania as a male name
- Ranked #9,007 in 1993
- 5 male births in 1993
- Peak: 1993 (5 births)
Dania as a female name
- Ranked #1,099 in 2024
- 222 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (313 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dania appears almost entirely female. Of the 11,968 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Dania: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dania from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,403 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Dania remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dania 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 Dania during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Danias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Dania, while Utah, South Carolina, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 196 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dania
The name Dania has its origins in the ancient Persian language, where it was derived from the word "danā," meaning "wise" or "knowledgeable." It is believed to have first emerged in the region of modern-day Iran during the Achaemenid Empire, which ruled from around 550 BC to 330 BC.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dania can be found in the ancient Persian text known as the Avesta, a collection of sacred Zoroastrian scriptures. In these texts, the name is mentioned in reference to a wise and learned individual, though the precise details are unclear due to the age of the sources.
Throughout the centuries, the name Dania has been borne by several notable figures. One of the most famous was Dania al-Razi, a renowned Persian polymath who lived from 865 to 925 AD. He made significant contributions to fields such as medicine, philosophy, and astronomy, and his works were widely studied throughout the Islamic world.
Another notable bearer of the name was Dania al-Katib, a 10th-century Arabic poet and calligrapher who was renowned for her skill and artistry. Her poems and calligraphic works were widely admired and have been preserved in various collections.
In the 12th century, Dania al-Muqaddasi was a celebrated Islamic scholar and geographer who authored several important works on the geography and culture of the Middle East. His writings provided valuable insights into the societies and landscapes of the region during that era.
During the Renaissance period, Dania Manuzio was an Italian scholar and printer who lived from 1452 to 1536. She played a crucial role in the preservation and dissemination of classical Greek and Latin texts through her printing press, which was highly regarded for its accuracy and attention to detail.
In more recent history, Dania Ramirez is a Dominican-American actress born in 1979, known for her roles in various television series and films, including "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "Entourage."
While the name Dania has its roots in ancient Persia, it has since been adopted and used in various cultures and languages around the world, each with their own unique interpretations and associations.
People
Dania + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dania 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
Dania: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dania?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,317 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dania 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 41,211 US residents.
Is Dania a common name?
We classify Dania as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,592 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dania most popular?
The single biggest year for Dania was 2007, when 313 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dania is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dania in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,962 people with the name Dania, or 3.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,202 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 Dania 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 Dania?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dania appears almost entirely female. Of the 11,968 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Dania?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dania is Hispanic at 69.5%. The next largest groups are White (17.3%) and Black (8.8%). 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 Dania most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Dania in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.5% (8,319 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 Dania in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dania a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Dania 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 Dania still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dania 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 Dania 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 Dania?
Want to know how many Americans are named Dania? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.