Daneil
Masculine · “God is my judge”
Daneil is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,216 boys against 32 girls since 1880.
Daneil is a writing slip that hardened into a name. Two letters changed places, somebody wrote it on a form, and the form became the record; and because English readers repair words as they read them, most people looking at it see the standard name and go on without noticing.
How old is the name Daneil?
Daneil first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Daneil alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 1,100 people named Daneil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Daneil most popular?
Daneil peaked in 1962, reaching #1295 nationally. See the whole 1962 chart.
Where it comes from
From Daniyyel to Daneil
The story of Daneil
The book that carries the name gave English one of its commonest phrases. At a Babylonian feast a hand appears and writes four words on the plaster of the wall; nobody at the table can read them, and the man brought in to interpret says they mean the king has been weighed and found wanting and his kingdom is finished, which it is by morning. To see the writing on the wall has meant to recognize an ending that has not arrived yet ever since. The same book gave the language the phrase about feet of clay, from a statue in a dream with a gold head and clay feet, and the den of lions, which turns up as a metaphor in every newspaper. Very few short texts have put that much into ordinary English.
Meaning
God is my judge
The Hebrew is a small sentence, a verb about judging and the divine element that ends so many names in that language. It is a statement about God rather than about the child, which is true of the whole class. The transposition in this spelling changes nothing about the meaning and nothing about the sound.
How the name formed
- Daniyyel
- Daniel
- Daneil
Related forms: Daniyyel · Daniel · Danyal
Pronouncing Daneil
DAN-yul
Two syllables in ordinary American speech, three if said carefully. This spelling is pronounced exactly as the standard one; the transposed letters sit in an unstressed syllable where nothing can be heard.
Nicknames for Daneil
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
- 1925
- Most boys named
- 196236 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1295reached in 1962
- Change vs 2016
- 0.0%5 in 2018, from 5
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.
Daneil in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Daniyyel in Hebrew — transliteration
- Daniel in Spanish — same name
- Danyal in Arabic — same name
Daneils among us
people named Daneil 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
Daneil 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
- The spoken name is one of the most established in the world and never needs repeating.
- Dan and Danny are two short forms in different registers.
- This spelling accidentally produces Neil as a third short form.
- It will be read as a typing error and corrected by people trying to help.
- The record carries it for girls in small numbers as well.
- Nothing about the spelling can be defended in speech, since the difference is inaudible.
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What they receive
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Daneil
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Daneils are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Daneil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Daneil in 2025?
- Daneil is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Daneil with classmates?
- Daneil will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Daneil? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Daneil and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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