Donna
A feminine name derived from the Italian "donna", meaning "lady".
Name Census estimates that about 523,137 living Americans carry the first name Donna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Donna today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Donna births was 1959 (36,540 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Donna. 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 Donna with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Donna is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 2,233 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Donna is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Donnas were born before 1969.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Donna have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
523K
~ 1 in 655 Americans
Peak year
1959
36,540 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
1993 SSA rank
#1,941
Tracked since 1880
Census
Donna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 635,056 people with the first name Donna, which placed it at #63 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
#63
National first-name rank
People counted
635K
635,056 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
210.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Donna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donna is White at 87.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and Two or More Races (2.3%). 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 Donna 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 Donna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.9% · 558,108
- Black or African American6.0% · 38,132
- Two or more races2.3% · 14,353
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 14,011
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 6,676
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 3,776
Gender
Gender distribution for Donna
Out of the 833,769 babies given the name Donna since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Donna as a male name
- Ranked #7,901 in 1993
- 6 male births in 1993
- Peak: 1960 (78 births)
Donna as a female name
- Ranked #1,941 in 2024
- 102 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1959 (36,469 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donna appears almost entirely female. Of the 635,065 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Donna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Donna from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 270,837 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
Donna 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 Donna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Donnas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Donna, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16,226 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Donna
The name Donna has its origins in the Italian language, derived from the Latin word "domina" which means "lady" or "mistress". It was a respectful way to address a woman of higher social standing or nobility.
In the Middle Ages, Donna became a common name among Italian women, particularly in regions like Tuscany and Lombardy. It was also adopted in other parts of Europe, although its popularity varied across different cultures.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Donna can be found in the works of the famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who lived from 1265 to 1321. In his masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, he refers to his muse and unrequited love as "la Donna gentile" (the gentle lady).
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Donna. One of the most famous was Donna Francesca Romana (1384-1440), an Italian religious mystic and the foundress of the Oblate Congregation of Tor de' Specchi. She was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1608.
Another prominent figure was Donna Laura Bassi (1711-1778), an Italian philosopher and physicist who was one of the first women to earn a university degree and become a professor. She was appointed to the chair of philosophy at the University of Bologna in 1732.
In the realm of music, Donna Summer (1948-2012) was an iconic American singer and songwriter, known as the "Queen of Disco". Her hits include "MacArthur Park," "Hot Stuff," and "Last Dance."
Donna Reed (1921-1986) was an American actress who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1953 film From Here to Eternity. She is also remembered for her portrayal of the ideal suburban mother in the television series The Donna Reed Show.
Lastly, Donna Shalala (born 1941) is an American politician and academic who served as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. She was also the president of the University of Miami from 2001 to 2015.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Donna
People
Donna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Donna 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
Donna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Donna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 523,137 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Donna 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 655 US residents.
Is Donna a common name?
We classify Donna as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 833,769 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Donna most popular?
The single biggest year for Donna was 1959, when 36,540 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Donna is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Donna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 635,056 people with the name Donna, or 210.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #63 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 Donna 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 Donna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donna appears almost entirely female. Of the 635,065 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Donna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donna is White at 87.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and Two or More Races (2.3%). 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 Donna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Donna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.9% (558,108 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 Donna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Donna a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Donna 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 Donna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Donna 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 Donna 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 Donna?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.