Danah
Feminine
The Danube, the Don, the Dnieper and the Dniester are all named after the same word. Indo-European danu meant a river, and it survives across Europe in the names of the great ones, and in the Irish goddess Danu whose people are the Tuatha De Danann. Rivers keep their names longer than anything else on a map.
How old is the name Danah?
Danah first appears in US birth records in 1956 — 69 years ago. The typical Danah alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 1,000 people named Danah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Danah most popular?
Danah peaked in 1980, reaching #2866 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 5,994 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Where it comes from
From Dana to Danah
The story of Danah
River names are the oldest layer of European toponymy and the most conservative, because a river is a landmark that successive populations all need to refer to and none can move. The danu root is spread across the continent: the Danube, Don, Dnieper, Dniester and Donets in the east, and probably the several English rivers called Don. The word appears in Sanskrit as danu, a fluid or drop, and in Avestan. In Ireland, Danu or Anu is the mother of the Tuatha De Danann, the people of the goddess Danu, the divine race of Irish myth, and whether her name belongs to the river root is argued. What is not argued is the pattern: across Europe, the names of major rivers routinely predate every language now spoken beside them, which makes them the closest thing to a fossil record a map contains.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Dana has several unrelated possible sources: the Irish mother goddess Danu, whose name may contain the Indo-European root danu, a river; a Hebrew feminine of Dan, he judged; a Scandinavian word for a Dane; and an English surname. Danah adds a terminal h. Which applies to a given bearer is not recoverable; it peaks in 1980.
How the name formed
- Dana
- Danah
Related forms: Dana · Dana
Pronouncing Danah
DAY-nah
Two syllables, stress on the first. DAH-nah with an open first vowel is also common and is the Hebrew and Slavic reading. The terminal h is silent and marks the final vowel as full.
Nicknames for Danah
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
- 1956
- Most girls named
- 201232 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2866reached in 1980
- Change vs 2024
- +37.5%11 in 2025, from 8
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.
Danah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dana in English — spelling variant
- Dana in Hebrew — related form
Danahs among us
people named Danah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Danah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Danah
- #8860
- Danah on the 2025 chart
- #299
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Danah went to 11 girls in 2025, but Danna, Dana and Dannah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 1,053, which makes it the 299th most-given girls’ name of the year — 8,561 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 1,526 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 146,115 for Danah 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
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Melida test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Danah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Melida climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Melida's path sketches the road Danah is walking now.
Danah 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
Danah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Danah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, balanced and easy to spell.
- It works in English, Hebrew and Slavic settings.
- The terminal h prevents the final vowel being reduced.
- Dana is far more common and is used for both sexes.
- Two vowel readings circulate.
- No single derivation can be given.
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Danah
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Danahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Danah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Danah?
- Danah is one of 4 recorded spellings. Danna is the more common one — 787 births in 2025 against 11 for Danah.
- How popular is the name Danah in 2025?
- Danah ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Danah?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Danah — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Danah with classmates?
- Danah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Danah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Danah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Danah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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