Daniels
Of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my judge".
Name Census estimates that about 34 living Americans carry the first name Daniels. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Daniels today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Daniels births was 1945 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Daniels. 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 Daniels with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Daniels. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
34
~ 1 in 10,081,010 Americans
Peak year
1945
7 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2018 SSA rank
#12,581
Tracked since 1945
Census
Daniels in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 332 people with the first name Daniels, which placed it at #27,518 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
#27,518
National first-name rank
People counted
332
332 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Daniels
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Daniels is White at 43.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.4%) and Black (21.7%). 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 Daniels 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 Daniels at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.7% · 145
- Hispanic or Latino30.4% · 101
- Black or African American21.7% · 72
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
- Two or more races0.6% · 2
Popularity
Daniels: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Daniels from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 7 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Daniels remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Daniels 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 Daniels 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 Daniels
The name Daniels is derived from the Hebrew name Daniel, which means "God is my judge" or "God has judged". It originated in ancient Israel and the Middle East region during biblical times.
The name Daniel appears frequently in the Hebrew Bible, most notably as the name of a young Jewish exile living in Babylon during the 6th century BC. The Book of Daniel recounts his life and visions as a prophet. As such, the name held significant religious meaning and symbolism within Judaism.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Daniel was the biblical figure mentioned above, who lived during the 6th century BC under the Babylonian and Persian empires. The prophet Daniel is also regarded as a saint in Christianity and Islam.
Another early prominent figure named Daniel was Daniel the Stylite, a 5th-century Christian monk and saint from the Byzantine Empire, known for living atop a pillar for years as an act of asceticism.
In the Middle Ages, the name Daniel was popularized across Europe due to its biblical significance. One notable figure was Daniel of Galicia, a 13th-century Grand Prince of Galicia-Volhynia in modern-day Ukraine and Belarus (born c. 1201 – died c. 1264).
During the Renaissance period, the Italian artist and sculptor Daniele da Volterra (1509-1566) was a prominent figure with this name, known for his work in the Sistine Chapel and other churches in Rome.
In more recent centuries, the name Daniel has continued to be used across various cultures and religions. Some notable individuals include the American writer Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), the French philosopher and writer Voltaire (born François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778), and the British explorer Daniel Boone (1734-1820).
People
Daniels + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Daniels 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
Daniels: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Daniels?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 34 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Daniels 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 10,081,010 US residents.
Is Daniels a common name?
We classify Daniels as "Very Rare". It ranks above 48.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 39 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Daniels most popular?
The single biggest year for Daniels was 1945, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Daniels is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Daniels in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 332 people with the name Daniels, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,518 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 Daniels 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 Daniels?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Daniels leans strongly male. 260 people counted with this name were male (80.7%), compared with 62 female bearers (19.3%). 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 Daniels?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Daniels is White at 43.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.4%) and Black (21.7%). 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 Daniels most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Daniels in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.7% (145 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 Daniels in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Daniels a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Daniels 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 Daniels still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Daniels 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 Daniels 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 Daniels as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.