Dawnn
A feminine name derived from the word "dawn", symbolizing the start of a new day.
Name Census estimates that about 256 living Americans carry the first name Dawnn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dawnn today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dawnn births was 1970 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dawnn. 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
256
~ 1 in 1,338,884 Americans
Peak year
1970
17 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
1994 SSA rank
#13,975
Tracked since 1954
Census
Dawnn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 372 people with the first name Dawnn, which placed it at #25,491 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
#25,491
National first-name rank
People counted
372
372 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dawnn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dawnn is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Black (32.0%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Dawnn 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 Dawnn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.1% · 220
- Black or African American32.0% · 119
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 14
- Two or more races3.8% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 5
Popularity
Dawnn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dawnn from the 1950s through to the 1990s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 112 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Dawnn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dawnn 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 Dawnn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dawnns live
Origin
Meaning and history of Dawnn
The name Dawnn is a variant spelling of the English name Dawn, which is derived from the Old English word "dæg" meaning "day." This name has its roots in ancient Germanic cultures and languages, where it was originally used as a feminine given name.
In many ancient cultures, the dawn was seen as a significant time of day, representing the start of a new cycle and the arrival of light after the darkness of night. As such, the name Dawnn likely carried symbolic meanings of renewal, hope, and new beginnings.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dawnn can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, a collection of annals describing the history of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain from the 9th century AD. Here, the name is mentioned as a variant spelling of the more common "Dawn."
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Dawnn. One of the earliest was Dawnn of Wessex, a 10th-century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who was a prominent figure in the court of King Edward the Elder. Another notable Dawnn was Dawnn de Montfort, a 13th-century French noblewoman who played a role in the Barons' War against King Henry III of England.
In the 15th century, Dawnn Wynters was a renowned English poet and author, known for her lyrical works celebrating the beauty of nature and the changing seasons. Her contemporaries often praised her poetic descriptions of the dawn's early light.
During the Renaissance period, Dawnn Fiammetta was an Italian artist and writer who was a member of the renowned Medici court in Florence. Her paintings and writings often featured the symbolic imagery of the dawn as a metaphor for artistic and intellectual enlightenment.
In more recent history, Dawnn Wilburn was a 20th-century American civil rights activist who played a pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956, alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Her unwavering commitment to justice and equality during the dawn of the modern civil rights movement made her a notable figure in the struggle for racial equality.
People
Dawnn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dawnn 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
Dawnn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dawnn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 256 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dawnn 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 1,338,884 US residents.
Is Dawnn a common name?
We classify Dawnn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 297 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dawnn most popular?
The single biggest year for Dawnn was 1970, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dawnn is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dawnn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 372 people with the name Dawnn, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,491 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 Dawnn 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 Dawnn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dawnn appears almost entirely female. Of the 378 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Dawnn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dawnn is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Black (32.0%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Dawnn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dawnn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.1% (220 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 Dawnn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dawnn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dawnn 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 Dawnn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dawnn 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 Dawnn 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 named Dawnn?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.