Find out how popular the last name Donati is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Donati.

Donati, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Donati surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Donati in America

Donati is the 18253rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Donati surname appeared 1,522 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Donati.

We can also compare 2010 data for Donati to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Donati

The surname Donati originated in Italy during the Middle Ages. It derived from the Italian word "donato," meaning "given" or "donated." This name likely referred to a person who had been donated to the Church or a monastery as a child.

The earliest known record of the Donati name appears in a 12th-century manuscript from Florence, where the family was prominent and influential. In the 13th century, the Donati family played a significant role in the Guelph-Ghibelline conflicts, with the Donati being staunch supporters of the Guelph faction.

One of the most well-known members of the Donati family was Corso Donati, a powerful Florentine politician who lived from around 1250 to 1308. He was a fierce rival of the Guelph leader Dante Alighieri and is mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy.

During the Renaissance period, the Donati family produced several notable figures, including Girolamo Donati, a 16th-century scholar and mathematician who made significant contributions to the study of comets and planetary orbits.

In the 17th century, the Donati name spread beyond Italy to other parts of Europe. One notable example is Vitaliano Donati, an Italian architect and engineer who worked in Poland in the late 1600s, where he designed several churches and buildings in the Baroque style.

Another prominent individual with the Donati surname was Giovanni Battista Donati, an 18th-century Italian astronomer who discovered the comet that bears his name, Comet Donati, in 1858.

Throughout history, the Donati name has been associated with various places in Italy, such as the town of Donato in the Abruzzo region and the village of Donato Milanese near Milan. Variations of the spelling, such as Donato and Donatello, have also been recorded.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Donati

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Donati.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Donati was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Donati has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Donati was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Donati, please contact us.

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