Dagmar
Feminine · “day maid”
Dagmar is Danish, and the queen it is most associated with was not Danish and was not called it. She was a Bohemian princess who arrived to marry a Danish king and was given a new name on landing, which the country then remembered her by for eight hundred years. A later Dagmar of Denmark went the other way, became Empress of Russia, and outlived the empire she married into.
How old is the name Dagmar?
Dagmar first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Dagmar alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. About 500 people named Dagmar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dagmar most popular?
Dagmar peaked in 1895, reaching #622 nationally. See the whole 1895 chart.
Where it comes from
From Two Old Norse elements, day and maid to Dagmar
The story of Dagmar
The first Dagmar arrived by sea to marry, and the country renamed her. She became the subject of ballads within a century of her death, remembered as the good queen who asked for the release of prisoners and the lifting of a tax, and the ballads kept the name alive in Denmark long after any real memory of her had gone. The second Dagmar was born a Danish princess, married the heir to the Russian throne, took a Russian name and title, and lived through her son's reign, the revolution, and her family's murder. She refused to accept that they were dead, left Russia on a British warship, and spent her last years in Denmark under the name she had started with. Two women, one name, and between them a fair share of the history of the Baltic.
Meaningscholars disagree
day maid
The usual reading takes two Old Norse elements, one meaning day and one meaning maid or girl, and that is the standard account. It is complicated by the fact that the most famous bearer was renamed on arrival, which suggests the name may have been chosen to sound Danish rather than descending in the ordinary way. A Slavic origin has also been proposed for her original name and rejected as the source of this one.
How the name formed
- Two Old Norse elements, day and maid
- Given to a Bohemian princess on arrival in Denmark
- Kept alive by Danish ballads for centuries
- Carried to America by Scandinavian families
Related forms: Dagmar · Dagmar · Dagmar · Dagmar
Pronouncing Dagmar
DAG-mar
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a short flat a in each. Danish and German say it the same way. English speakers sometimes lengthen the second syllable into MAHR, which is not wrong so much as slightly grander than the original.
Nicknames for Dagmar
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1883
- Most girls named
- 191545 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #622reached in 1895
- Change vs 2010
- −28.6%5 in 2019, from 7
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Dagmar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dagmar in Danish — same name
- Dagmar in Swedish — same name
- Dagmar in Czech — same name
- Dagmar in German — same name
Dagmars among us
people named Dagmar are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Dagmar sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, strong and completely unambiguous, which few Scandinavian names manage in English.
- It is used unchanged across Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the Czech lands.
- It has two genuinely remarkable historical bearers with stories worth telling.
- It sounds distinctly foreign in American English and will be commented on.
- The meaning is contested, and the most famous bearer received the name rather than inheriting it.
- It has a hard, flat sound that some families will find blunt rather than strong.
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Dagmar
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Dagmars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Dagmar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dagmar in 2025?
- Dagmar is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Dagmar with classmates?
- Dagmar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
Dorothy#421 · Donna#1962 · Deborah#862 · Debra#4460 · Diane#2607 · Doris#2895 · Denise#1673 · Danielle#549
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dagmar? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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