Danilo
Masculine · “God is my judge”
Danilo is Daniel with a Slavic and Romance accent — the same ancient name, reshaped by Serbian, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese mouths into four open syllables that end on a vowel. It was carried by princes of Montenegro, and it gave Franz Lehár's 1905 operetta *The Merry Widow* its Count Danilo. On US records it has held a modest, unbroken place for generations rather than arriving in a rush.
How old is the name Danilo?
Danilo first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Danilo alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 4,500 people named Danilo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Danilo most popular?
Danilo peaked in 2017, reaching #1010 nationally. Today it ranks #1315, 305 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Danilo appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Daniyyel to Danilo
The story of Danilo
The name begins in the Hebrew Bible, where Daniel is the prophet of the lions' den, and it traveled out through Greek and Latin translations into every Christian language in Europe. In the Slavic south and east it became Danilo and Danylo; in Italy, Spain and Portugal the same ending settled in. Montenegro made it dynastic — Danilo was the name of both a ruling metropolitan in the early eighteenth century and the prince who governed in the 1850s. It reached American records in the middle of the twentieth century, largely with Italian, Latin American and Balkan families, and its strongest footholds are still California, Texas and Florida.
Meaning
God is my judge
Danilo descends from the Hebrew Daniyyel, built from din (judge) and El (God).
How the name formed
- Daniyyel
- Daniel
- Danilo
Related forms: Daniel · Danylo · Daniele · Danijel · Daniil · Dániel
Pronouncing Danilo
dah-NEE-loh
Italian, Spanish and Portuguese speakers stress the middle syllable. Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin speakers put the stress first: DAH-nee-lo. Both are correct for the same name.
Nicknames for Danilo
High
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
- 1946
- Most boys named
- 2022209 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1010reached in 2017
- Change vs 2023
- −29.0%147 in 2025, from 207
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.
Danilo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Daniel in English — same name
- Danylo in Ukrainian — same name
- Daniele in Italian — related form
- Danijel in Croatian / Slovene — related form
- Daniil in Russian — transliteration
- Dániel in Hungarian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Danilos among us
people named Danilo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 11,620 born in 2025 was named Danilo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Danilo
- #1315
- Danilo on the 2025 chart
- #758
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Danilo went to 147 boys in 2025, but Danylo is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 170, which makes it the 758th most-given boys’ name of the year — 557 places above the chart.
- Danilo147
- Danylo23
About 1 boy in 10,048 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 11,620 for Danilo 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 Marquel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Danilo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marquel climbed just as high around 1995, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marquel's path sketches the road Danilo is walking now.
Danilo 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 Danilo is headed
Danilo should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
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.
Danilo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Danilo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian, Croatian and Slovene — a rare thing for a name of only three syllables.
- Fully documented meaning, traceable to the Hebrew of the Book of Daniel with no guesswork involved.
- Comes with short forms already in use — Dani, Danny, Dan, Nilo — so the child can choose the register.
- Recognizable to almost any English speaker on sight, because Daniel does the introducing.
- People will hear Daniel and write Daniel. Expect a lifetime of gentle correction, plus occasional Danillo or Danielo on forms.
- If Danny or Dani becomes the daily name, it will be shared with a great many Daniels and Danielas — the distinctiveness lives in the full form.
- In American classrooms he is likely to be the only one, which means the name is his alone but also always slightly new to whoever is reading the roll.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Danilo to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Danilo
Masculine · #1315 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Danilos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,500 people named Danilo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Danilo?
- Danilo is the most-used spelling in US records — 147 of the 170 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Danylo.
- How popular is the name Danilo in 2025?
- Danilo ranks #1315 among US boy names in 2025, with 147 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Danilo?
- About 1 in every 11,620 US boys born in 2025 was named Danilo — 147 in all.
- Will my child share the name Danilo with classmates?
- Danilo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Danilo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Saif#1315 · Townes#1315 · Jream#1315 · Willie#1315 · Aydin#1315 · Nikko#1315 · Jael#1315 · Coleman#1310
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Danilo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Danilo and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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