Daphna
Feminine · “laurel”
Daphna is the Hebrew form of a Greek plant name, in regular use in Israel, and English-speaking readers usually take it for a variant of the familiar spelling. The shepherd whose name is built on the same word stands at the head of an entire European literary tradition.
How old is the name Daphna?
Daphna first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Daphna alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 300 people named Daphna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Daphna most popular?
Daphna peaked in 1916, reaching #1739 nationally. See the whole 1916 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Daphna
Pastoral poetry — shepherds sitting in the shade, singing competitions, an idealized countryside with real names for the plants — starts with Theocritus, a Greek from Syracuse writing in Alexandria, and his Idylls. Virgil took the form into Latin in the Eclogues and made it a vehicle for politics; from there it runs through the Renaissance into English with Spenser and Milton, so that a poem about a drowned Cambridge friend gets written as a lament between shepherds. Theocritus's dying herdsman Daphnis, whose name is the laurel word, became a fixed character in the genre. It is one of the clearest cases in literature of a whole tradition traceable to one surviving book by one poet.
Meaning
laurel
The Greek word for the bay laurel, taken into Hebrew as a name and used there in this form. The tree is the one whose leaves crowned victors and flavor a stew, which is the same plant doing two very different jobs.
Pronouncing Daphna
DAF-nuh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Hebrew says daf-NAH, with the weight at the back, which is the usual Hebrew pattern.
Nicknames for Daphna
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
- 1909
- Most girls named
- 191620 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1739reached in 1916
- Change vs 2014
- −44.4%5 in 2023, from 9
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.
Daphna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- דפנה in Hebrew — same name
- Daphne in English — same name
Daphnas among us
people named Daphna 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
Daphna 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 meaning is documented and names a real and familiar plant.
- Two syllables with front stress is the plainest shape English has.
- Six letters with no silent ones make it simple to spell aloud.
- Daphne is far commoner in English and will be written for it.
- The Hebrew and English readings move the stress.
- It is taken for a respelling by readers who do not know the Hebrew form.
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Frequently asked
- How many Daphnas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Daphna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Daphna in 2025?
- Daphna is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Daphna with classmates?
- Daphna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
Dorothy#421 · Donna#1962 · Deborah#862 · Debra#4460 · Diane#2607 · Doris#2895 · Denise#1673 · Danielle#549
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Daphna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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