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Danae

Feminine · “of the Danaans”

Danae is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 7,443 girls against 6 boys since 1880.

1947high 2001
#2410 in the U.S.given to only a few children a year
rare74 girls in 2025

Danaë was shut in a bronze chamber by her father and reached anyway — by Zeus, as a shower of gold.

How old is the name Danae?

Danae first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Danae alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 7,300 people named Danae are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Danae most popular?

Danae peaked in 1991, reaching #913 nationally. Today it ranks #2410, 1,497 places below that high. See the whole 1991 chart.

Compare this nameMore “D” names

Lists built from the same records:

I

Where it comes from

The story of Danae

An oracle told Acrisius his grandson would kill him, so he shut his daughter Danaë in a bronze chamber; Zeus came as a shower of gold and she bore Perseus, who killed Acrisius by accident with a discus. Titian, Klimt and Rembrandt all painted her. It appears in American records in current use.

Meaningscholars disagree

of the Danaans

From the Greek Danae, generally connected to the Danaans, a Homeric name for the Greeks, itself of unrecovered origin. A derivation from a root meaning 'dry' or 'parched' is also proposed. Neither is established. The myth is documented.

Pronouncing Danae

DAN-ay-ee

Three syllables, stress on the first. Some say duh-NAY with two.

Nicknames for Danae

Moderate

DaniThe front of the name, and a name in its own right for both sexes
NaeThe back sound alone, used inside families rather than generally
II

What the data says

The long climb, and where it stands now

GIRLS NAMED · 1947–202521210602127419472025

US babies named Danae per year from 1947 to 2025
AVERAGE RANK BY DECADE#1#10#100#1000#9131940s2020s

The same years in position rather than babies

First recorded
1947
Most girls named
2001212 — the highest on record
Peak rank
#913reached in 1991
Change vs 2023
−36.2%74 in 2025, from 116
Danae sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 2001, with 212 girls. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

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.

Danae in other languages

The same name elsewhere

  • Δανάη in Greek — transliteration
  • Dánae in Spanish — same name

Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.

Danaes among us

7,300

people named Danae are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 girl in 21,720 born in 2025 was named Danae

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

Spellings of Danae

#2410
Danae on the 2025 chart
#865
counting every spelling

The SSA counts spellings, not names. Danae went to 74 girls in 2025, but Dannae is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 95, which makes it the 865th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,545 places above the chart.

  • Danae74
  • Dannae21

About 1 girl in 16,919 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 21,720 for Danae itself.

Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method

III

Is it right for you

The Ethelene test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Danae's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ethelene climbed just as high around 1925, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ethelene's path sketches the road Danae is walking now.

40%chance Danae will feel dated by 2040
Danae, aligned on its peakEthelene· peak 1925not yet written
#1#10#100#1000peak-40 yrs+40 yrsEthelene · #5051Danae today
Danae today is about where Ethelene stood in 1959 — 34 years past a #913-sized peak. Within 15 years, Ethelene had drifted out of the mainstream charts.
Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Danae 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

Where Danae is headed

19472030

US babies named Danae per year, 1947 to 2025, with a projection to 2030

Danae looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 27% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.

Rising+27% by 2030projected around #2,129 in 2030

Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.

A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.

Danae beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Danae in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Danaethis name74#2410Ayda74#2410Laina74#2410Leana74#2410Sanvi74#2410

US girls given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths
  • The shower-of-gold myth is a first-rate story and a great subject in painting.
  • Dani is available as a short form with a real record.
  • It is genuinely distinctive.
What to consider
  • The name's own meaning is not established.
  • The pronunciation splits between two and three syllables.
  • The myth involves imprisonment and a divine rape.

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Danae

Feminine · #2410 in the U.S.

♥ Love itNot for meLet’s talk about it
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Frequently asked

How many Danaes are there in the world?
No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,300 people named Danae are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How do you spell Danae?
Danae is the most-used spelling in US records — 74 of the 95 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Dannae.
How popular is the name Danae in 2025?
Danae ranks #2410 among US girl names in 2025, with 74 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Danae?
About 1 in every 21,720 US girls born in 2025 was named Danae — 74 in all.
Will my child share the name Danae with classmates?
Danae will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Danae

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Ayda#2410 · Laina#2410 · Leana#2410 · Sanvi#2410 · Terra#2410 · Sullivan#2410 · Natalya#2410 · Layken#2410

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Danae? See the current top 100.

Choosing between Danae and another name?

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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