Donnalynn
Feminine name of English origin, a combination of "Donna" meaning "lady" and "Lynn" meaning "lake".
Name Census estimates that about 59 living Americans carry the first name Donnalynn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Donnalynn today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Donnalynn births was 1960 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Donnalynn. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Donnalynn. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
59
~ 1 in 5,809,396 Americans
Peak year
1960
10 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
1971 SSA rank
#7,632
Tracked since 1946
Census
Donnalynn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 253 people with the first name Donnalynn, which placed it at #32,947 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
#32,947
National first-name rank
People counted
253
253 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Donnalynn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donnalynn is White at 72.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (10.7%) and Black (8.3%). 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 Donnalynn 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 Donnalynn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.3% · 183
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.7% · 27
- Black or African American8.3% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 10
- Two or more races3.2% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 4
Popularity
Donnalynn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Donnalynn from the 1940s through to the 1970s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 42 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Donnalynn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Donnalynn 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 Donnalynn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Donnalynn
The name Donnalynn is a modern composite name that combines the feminine given name Donna with the English surname Lynn. The first component, Donna, is derived from the Italian and Spanish donna, meaning "lady" or "woman." This term can be traced back to the Latin domina, which also means "lady" or "mistress."
The name Donna gained popularity in the English-speaking world during the 20th century, but its roots can be traced back to medieval Italy and Spain. In these regions, it was a common title of respect used to address women of high social standing or members of the nobility. Over time, the term transitioned from a title to a personal name, initially favored by Italian and Spanish families.
The second component, Lynn, is an English surname that has been adopted as a given name. It is believed to originate from various place names in England, such as Lynn in Norfolk or Lyne in Staffordshire. These place names are thought to be derived from Celtic or Old English words meaning "pool" or "lake."
While the combination of Donna and Lynn into the name Donnalynn is relatively modern, the individual components have a rich history. One notable historical figure named Donna was Donna Camilla Battista (1629-1718), an Italian painter and nun known for her remarkable still-life paintings during the Baroque period.
In terms of the name Lynn, one of the earliest recorded instances is Lynn de Lacy (c. 1260-1311), an English noblewoman who held significant lands and titles in her own right. Another notable Lynn was Lynn Fontanne (1887-1983), an English-American actress renowned for her performances on Broadway and her long-standing partnership with her husband, Alfred Lunt.
Other historical figures with the name Lynn include Lynn Margulis (1938-2011), an American evolutionary biologist and theorist who contributed significantly to the endosymbiotic theory of cell evolution, and Lynn Abbey (born 1948), an American science fiction and fantasy author known for her work in the Thieves' World shared universe.
While the name Donnalynn does not have a long historical lineage, its components have deep roots in various cultures and languages, reflecting the diverse influences that have shaped modern naming practices.
People
Donnalynn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Donnalynn 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
Donnalynn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Donnalynn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 59 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Donnalynn 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 5,809,396 US residents.
Is Donnalynn a common name?
We classify Donnalynn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 56.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 75 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Donnalynn most popular?
The single biggest year for Donnalynn was 1960, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Donnalynn is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Donnalynn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 253 people with the name Donnalynn, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,947 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 Donnalynn 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 Donnalynn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donnalynn appears almost entirely female. Of the 257 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Donnalynn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donnalynn is White at 72.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (10.7%) and Black (8.3%). 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 Donnalynn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Donnalynn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.3% (183 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 Donnalynn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Donnalynn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Donnalynn 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 Donnalynn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Donnalynn 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 Donnalynn 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 have Donnalynn as a first name?
See how many people share the name Donnalynn on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.