Dain
Masculine
Dain is a dwarf in Norse mythology and a stag in the same tradition — Dainn appears as both, one of the four harts that eat the leaves of the world-tree Yggdrasil. It is also readable as a spelling of Dane. Its American peak is 1978.
How old is the name Dain?
Dain first appears in US birth records in 1943 — 82 years ago. The typical Dain alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 1,900 people named Dain are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dain most popular?
Dain peaked in 1978, reaching #1109 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 5,034 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Dainn to Dain
The story of Dain
The Norse dwarf-names come to us mostly from a single passage in the Poetic Edda called the Dvergatal, the catalog of dwarves, which is a list of about seventy names with no story attached. Tolkien mined it for The Hobbit — Thorin, Fili, Kili, Gloin, Durin and Dain all come from it, and Dain Ironfoot is a character in his work. That is very likely how the name reached English-speaking use. American records show Dain in small numbers from the 1960s, and its peak in 1978 sits in a period when Tolkien's readership was at its widest.
Meaningscholars disagree
possibly 'the dead one' in Old Norse
Old Norse Dainn appears in the Poetic Edda both as a dwarf and as one of the four stags gnawing at Yggdrasil. The name is generally connected to the verb deyja, 'to die', giving something like 'the dead one' — which suits a dwarf, since the Norse dwarves were made from the flesh of a dead giant. That derivation is standard and not certain. The name is equally readable as a respelling of Dane, meaning a person from Denmark.
How the name formed
- Dainn
- Dain
Related forms: Dainn · Dane
Pronouncing Dain
DAYN
One syllable, rhyming with rain. Identical to Dane; the two spellings sound the same and differ only on paper.
Nicknames for Dain
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
- 1943
- Most boys named
- 197862 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1109reached in 1978
- Change vs 2023
- +16.7%14 in 2025, from 12
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.
Dain in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dainn in Old Norse — related form
- Dane in English — spelling variant
Dains among us
people named Dain are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Dain
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Elston test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dain's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elston climbed just as high around 1961, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elston's path sketches the road Dain is walking now.
Dain sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Dain beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dain in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and one syllable, immediately sayable and spellable.
- It has a genuine Norse mythological history rather than being a modern coinage.
- It is short, hard-edged and distinctive.
- It will be written Dane by most people taking it down.
- The Norse derivation, if correct, is not a cheerful one.
- One-syllable names leave a bearer with no nickname in reserve.
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Dain
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dains are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Dain are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dain in 2025?
- Dain ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dain?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Dain — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dain with classmates?
- Dain will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dain
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dain? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dain and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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