Danyal
Masculine · “God is my judge”
Danyal is given to both — 609 boys and 176 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Daniel is not named in the Quran, and he is venerated as a prophet anyway. His supposed tomb at Susa in Iran has been a major shrine for a thousand years, and Danyal is the form his name takes across the Persian and Turkish world.
How old is the name Danyal?
Danyal first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Danyal alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 600 people named Danyal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Danyal most popular?
Danyal peaked in 1998, reaching #3017 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 3,786 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Daniyyel to Danyal
The story of Danyal
The book of Daniel is late and its hero is a figure of the Babylonian exile who interprets dreams and survives the lions. Islamic tradition treats him as a prophet despite his absence from the Quran, and the shrine at Susa, in south-western Iran, is attributed to him; it was already a site of pilgrimage when Benjamin of Tudela described it in the twelfth century. That is why the name is used across Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Central Asia in Muslim families as well as in Christian and Jewish ones. Danyal reached United States records with South Asian and Middle Eastern migration and had its best year in 1998.
Meaning
God is my judge
Hebrew Daniyyel, from din, judgment, and El, God, giving God is my judge. It is a sentence name of the standard Hebrew type, and the El at the end is the divine element rather than a decorative ending. Danyal is the Persian, Turkish and Urdu form of the same name.
How the name formed
- Daniyyel
- Daniel
- Danyal
Related forms: Daniyal · Danyal · Daniyal · Daniel
Pronouncing Danyal
dahn-YAHL
Two syllables with the stress at the end. English speakers say DAN-yul, following Daniel, which moves the weight and shortens the vowels.
Nicknames for Danyal
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 200228 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3017reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −52.0%12 in 2025, from 25
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.
Danyal in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Daniyal in Persian — transliteration
- Danyal in Turkish — same name
- Daniyal in Urdu — same name
- Daniel in English — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Danyals among us
people named Danyal are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Danyal
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Danyal
- #6803
- Danyal on the 2025 chart
- #886
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Danyal went to 12 boys in 2025, but Daniyal and Danial are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 42, which makes it the 886th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,917 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 40,668 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 142,340 for Danyal 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 Kamel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Danyal's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kamel climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kamel's path sketches the road Danyal is walking now.
Danyal 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
Danyal beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Danyal in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Hebrew meaning shared across three religious traditions.
- Dan and Dani are both completely established everyday forms.
- Recognized in Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and the whole English-speaking world.
- Daniel is the English standard and will be written for you.
- Daniyal is the fuller transliteration used in Urdu and Persian.
- The stress belongs at the end and English speakers will move it.
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What they receive
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Danyal
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Danyals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Danyal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Danyal?
- Danyal is one of 3 recorded spellings. Daniyal is the more common one — 21 births in 2025 against 12 for Danyal.
- How popular is the name Danyal in 2025?
- Danyal ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Danyal?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Danyal — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Danyal with classmates?
- Danyal will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Danyal
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Danyal? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Danyal and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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