Danny
Feminine · “God is my judge”
Danny is given to boys far more often — 286,648 boys against 1,693 girls since 1880. See Danny as a boy name
For about twenty years in the middle of the twentieth century, American girls were given men's clipped names with a y on the end. Danny, Bobbie, Jimmie, Billie, Frankie, Toni and Jerri all peak in the same window, and the fashion has never returned.
How old is the name Danny?
Danny first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Danny alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 1,500 people named Danny are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Danny most popular?
Danny peaked in 1952, reaching #1578 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 4,968 places below that high. See the whole 1952 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Daniyyel to Danny
The story of Danny
The mid-century American taste for boys' nicknames on girls was specific and short-lived. It arrived in the 1930s, peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, and had largely gone by 1970; it produced Bobbie, Billie, Jackie, Frankie, Toni, Jerri, Ronnie and Danny, almost always with an -i or -ie or -y ending rather than the bare clip. The names were affectionate rather than androgynous in intent, and they belong to the same period as women's trousers and the working women of the war years. Danny's best year on the female side is 1952, and the male name has continued without interruption throughout.
Meaning
God is my judge
Danny shortens Daniel, Hebrew Daniyyel, from din, judgment, and El, God, giving God is my judge. It is a sentence name of the standard Hebrew type. On the female side it may also shorten Danielle or Danielle's variants, or Danica, which is a Slavic name meaning morning star and entirely unrelated.
How the name formed
- Daniyyel
- Daniel
- Danny
Related forms: Dannie · Danni · Danielle
Pronouncing Danny
DAN-ee
Two syllables with the stress on the first. Identical to the man's name; nothing in the sound distinguishes them.
Nicknames for Danny
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 195942 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1578reached in 1952
- Change vs 2023
- +13.3%17 in 2025, from 15
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.
Danny in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dannie in English — spelling variant
- Danni in English — spelling variant
- Danielle in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Dannys among us
people named Danny are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Danny
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Danny
- #6546
- Danny on the 2025 chart
- #563
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Danny went to 17 girls in 2025, but Dani and Danni are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 434, which makes it the 563rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,983 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,703 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Danny 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 Montine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Danny's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Montine climbed just as high around 1921, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Montine's path sketches the road Danny is walking now.
Danny 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
Danny beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Danny in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Hebrew meaning through one of the great prophetic names.
- Warm and immediately familiar to every English speaker.
- Genuinely period-authentic to mid-century American naming.
- It is overwhelmingly a man's name and will be read as one.
- Dannie, Danni and Danny all appear on the female side.
- It reads as a name of the 1940s and 1950s in American ears.
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Danny
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dannys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Danny are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Danny?
- Danny is one of 3 recorded spellings. Dani is the more common one — 364 births in 2025 against 17 for Danny.
- How popular is the name Danny in 2025?
- Danny ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Danny?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Danny — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Danny with classmates?
- Danny will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Danny
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Danny? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Danny and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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