Danitra
A feminine name derived from French meaning "morning star".
Name Census estimates that about 335 living Americans carry the first name Danitra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Danitra today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Danitra births was 1986 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Danitra. 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
335
~ 1 in 1,023,147 Americans
Peak year
1986
50 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
1998 SSA rank
#10,340
Tracked since 1954
Popularity
Danitra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Danitra from the 1950s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 181 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Danitra remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Danitra 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 Danitra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Danitras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Georgia, New York, South Carolina recorded the most babies named Danitra, while Texas, South Carolina, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Danitra
The name Danitra is believed to be of Malagasy origin, stemming from the island nation of Madagascar. It is thought to be derived from the Malagasy words "danitra," meaning "sky" or "heaven," and "tra," which is a suffix denoting a person or thing. Thus, the name Danitra can be interpreted as "heavenly one" or "one from the sky."
The earliest recorded use of the name Danitra dates back to the 17th century, during the height of the Merina Kingdom in central Madagascar. It was a popular name among the Merina people, who were the dominant ethnic group on the island at that time. The name's celestial connotations likely held significant cultural and spiritual significance for the Malagasy people.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as Madagascar fell under French colonial rule, the name Danitra gained more widespread recognition and began to appear in French records and literature. One notable figure who bore the name was Danitra Vavitsara (1896-1972), a Malagasy writer and activist who fought for the island's independence from France.
Outside of Madagascar, the name Danitra has been relatively uncommon throughout history, but a few notable individuals have carried it. One such person was Danitra Vance (1958-1994), an American actress and comedian best known for her work on the sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" in the late 1980s.
Another notable Danitra was Danitra Brown (1962-2022), an American fitness instructor and motivational speaker who gained fame for her high-energy workout videos in the 1990s and 2000s.
In the realm of literature, Danitra was the name of a character in the children's book series "The Tales of a Seventh-Grade Besties" by American author Kimberly Willis Holt, which was published in the early 2000s.
While not a widely popular name, Danitra has maintained a niche following and cultural significance, particularly among those with ties to Madagascar or an appreciation for its unique linguistic and cultural heritage.
People
Danitra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Danitra 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
Danitra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Danitra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 335 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Danitra 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 1,023,147 US residents.
Is Danitra a common name?
We classify Danitra as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 358 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Danitra most popular?
The single biggest year for Danitra was 1986, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Danitra is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Danitra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Danitra 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.