Donalee
Feminine name originating from a blend of the names "Donna" and "Leah".
Name Census estimates that about 215 living Americans carry the first name Donalee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Donalee today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Donalee births was 1959 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Donalee. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Donalee is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Donalees were born before 1966.
People living today
215
~ 1 in 1,594,206 Americans
Peak year
1959
17 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
1972 SSA rank
#6,090
Tracked since 1923
Census
Donalee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 393 people with the first name Donalee, which placed it at #24,486 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
#24,486
National first-name rank
People counted
393
393 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Donalee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donalee is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Black (5.1%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Donalee 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 Donalee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.8% · 341
- Black or African American5.1% · 20
- Two or more races3.3% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2
Popularity
Donalee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Donalee from the 1920s through to the 1970s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 105 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Donalee 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 Donalee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Donalees live
Origin
Meaning and history of Donalee
The name Donalee is a feminine given name with origins rooted in the Gaelic language and culture. It originated as a combination of two ancient Celtic words – "dona" meaning "brown" or "dark", and "lee" meaning "meadow" or "field". This suggests that the name may have initially referred to a person living in or associated with a meadow or field with dark or fertile soil.
In the early medieval period, variations of the name like Donaleigh and Donlea were recorded in historical documents from Ireland and Scotland. Some historians believe the name may have been influenced by the Old Irish name Dónall, a masculine name derived from the words "dónn" (brown) and "val" (ruler or prince). This could indicate that Donalee was initially a feminine form of the name Dónall.
The earliest recorded instance of the specific spelling "Donalee" dates back to the late 16th century in Ireland. One notable figure from this time was Donalee O'Donnell, a noblewoman from County Donegal, born around 1580. She was known for her involvement in the Irish resistance against English rule.
In the 18th century, a Donalee MacGregor was mentioned in Scottish clan records as a member of the influential MacGregor family. She lived during the turbulent times of the Jacobite risings and is said to have played a role in helping her clan evade persecution.
Moving into the 19th century, a Donalee Fitzgerald was a renowned Irish poet and writer. Born in 1810 in County Cork, her works often celebrated the beauty of the Irish countryside and folklore. She is considered one of the earliest female voices in modern Irish literature.
Another notable figure was Donalee Mackenzie, a Scottish explorer and adventurer born in 1845. She was among the first European women to travel extensively in parts of Africa and Asia, documenting her journeys in several published memoirs.
In the early 20th century, Donalee Malone was an American suffragette and activist from New York. Born in 1892, she was a prominent figure in the women's rights movement, campaigning tirelessly for the right to vote and gender equality.
People
Donalee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Donalee 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
Donalee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Donalee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 215 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Donalee 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 1,594,206 US residents.
Is Donalee a common name?
We classify Donalee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 406 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Donalee most popular?
The single biggest year for Donalee was 1959, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Donalee is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Donalee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 393 people with the name Donalee, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,486 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 Donalee 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 Donalee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donalee leans strongly female. 390 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 5 male bearers (1.3%). 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 Donalee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donalee is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Black (5.1%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Donalee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Donalee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.8% (341 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 Donalee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Donalee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Donalee 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 Donalee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Donalee 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 Donalee 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 Donalee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.