Daud
A masculine Arabic name meaning "beloved" or "loved one".
Name Census estimates that about 261 living Americans carry the first name Daud. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Daud today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Daud births was 2020 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Daud. 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 Daud with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
261
~ 1 in 1,313,235 Americans
Peak year
2020
17 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,223
Tracked since 1984
Census
Daud in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 543 people with the first name Daud, which placed it at #19,460 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
#19,460
National first-name rank
People counted
543
543 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
47.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Daud
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Daud is Black at 47.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (35.4%) and White (7.2%). 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 Daud 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 Daud at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American47.7% · 259
- Asian and Pacific Islander35.4% · 192
- White7.2% · 39
- Two or more races6.4% · 35
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Daud: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Daud from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 123 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Daud remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Daud 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 Daud during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dauds live
Origin
Meaning and history of Daud
The name Daud is derived from the Arabic word 'Dawud', which means 'beloved' or 'dear one'. It has its roots in the ancient Semitic languages and is believed to have originated in the Middle East, particularly in the Arabian Peninsula.
Daud is a name of great significance in the Islamic tradition, as it is the Arabic form of the name David, revered as a prophet in both Islam and Judaism. The name is mentioned several times in the Quran, the holy book of Islam, where Daud is portrayed as a great leader, warrior, and prophet who received divine revelations.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Daud can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible, where it refers to the biblical figure David, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. David, who lived around the 10th century BCE, is revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for his leadership, religious devotion, and poetic talents.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Daud. One of the most famous was Daud Pasha (1425-1456), an Ottoman governor and military commander who played a crucial role in the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and Greece during the 15th century.
Another prominent figure was Daud Khan (1667-1707), the founder of the Durrani Empire in modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is remembered for uniting various Pashtun tribes and establishing a powerful dynastic rule in the region.
In more recent times, Daud Khan (1909-1978) was the first President of Afghanistan, serving from 1973 to 1978. He came to power through a coup d'état and sought to modernize the country, but his rule was marked by political instability and eventually led to his overthrow.
Daud Mirza (1444-1503) was a renowned Persian poet and calligrapher during the Timurid period, who is celebrated for his contributions to the literary and artistic traditions of the region.
Daud Baigzada (1882-1978) was a prominent Afghan scholar, writer, and historian who played a significant role in preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of Afghanistan through his literary works and academic contributions.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Daud, a name deeply rooted in the cultural and religious traditions of the Middle East and Central Asia.
People
Daud + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Daud 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
Daud: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Daud?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 261 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Daud 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 1,313,235 US residents.
Is Daud a common name?
We classify Daud as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 264 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Daud most popular?
The single biggest year for Daud was 2020, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Daud is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Daud in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 543 people with the name Daud, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,460 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 Daud 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 Daud?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Daud appears almost entirely male. Of the 543 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Daud?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Daud is Black at 47.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (35.4%) and White (7.2%). 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 Daud most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Daud in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.7% (259 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 Daud in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Daud a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Daud 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 Daud still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Daud 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 Daud 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 are called Daud?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.