Danay
Feminine
Danaë was locked in a bronze room by a father who had been told his grandson would kill him, and Zeus reached her as a shower of gold. The son was Perseus, and the prophecy came true anyway. Her name in Greek carries a dieresis over the final e to mark it as a separate syllable, and the American spelling with -ay is the plainest way to do the same job without an accent.
How old is the name Danay?
Danay first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Danay alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 700 people named Danay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Danay most popular?
Danay peaked in 1978, reaching #3512 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 9,696 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Danaë to Danay
The story of Danay
The story is one of the oldest in Greek myth and one of the most painted — the shower of gold has been a subject for artists from Titian onward. The name reached European use through that art and through the classical revival, and it turns up in French and Spanish as Danae and Dánae. American records show Danay from the 1970s, alongside a whole family of names ending in a stressed -ay: Danay, Renay, Janay, Shanay. That ending is doing the same work in every one of them, which is to fix the final syllable for an English reader.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Greek Danaë has no established derivation. It is connected in myth to the Danaans, one of Homer's words for the Greeks, and to a legendary ancestor called Danaus — but which came first is not recoverable, and the name belongs to a layer older than any of the texts. There is a second possibility for American families: Danay may simply be Dana with an ending, in which case nothing attaches.
How the name formed
- Danaë
- Danae
- Danay
Related forms: Danaë · Dánae · Danaé
Pronouncing Danay
duh-NAY
Two syllables with the stress at the back, which the -ay spelling guarantees. The Greek Danaë has three syllables and the weight in the middle, DAN-uh-ee, which is a genuinely different name to the ear.
Nicknames for Danay
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 200535 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3512reached in 1978
- Change vs 2022
- −25.0%6 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.
Danay in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Danaë in Greek — related form
- Dánae in Spanish — related form
- Danaé in French — related form
Danays among us
people named Danay are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Danay
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Danay
- #13208
- Danay on the 2025 chart
- #943
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Danay went to 6 girls in 2025, but Danai is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 17, which makes it the 943rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,265 places above the chart.
- Danai11
- Danay6
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Danay 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 Lenae test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Danay's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lenae climbed just as high around 1960, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lenae's path sketches the road Danay is walking now.
Danay 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
Danay beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Danay in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The ending fixes the stress and the vowel, which the -ae spellings leave open.
- Dana works immediately as a short form and suits a child of either sex.
- Five letters, two syllables, and readable on sight by anyone.
- There is a substantial classical figure behind it if the family wants one.
- Danae, Denae and Danae's near-twin Danai all appear in records.
- The Greek and American pronunciations are far enough apart to be different names.
- The myth behind it is not a comfortable story, which anyone who looks it up will notice.
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What they receive
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Danay
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Danays are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Danay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Danay?
- Danay is one of 2 recorded spellings. Danai is the more common one — 11 births in 2025 against 6 for Danay.
- How popular is the name Danay in 2025?
- Danay ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Danay?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Danay — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Danay with classmates?
- Danay will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Danay
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Danay? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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