Dawn
Masculine · “daybreak”
Dawn is given to girls far more often — 289,641 girls against 1,039 boys since 1880. See Dawn as a girl name
Every European language named the dawn after a goddess, and the goddesses are all the same one. Eos in Greek, Aurora in Latin, Ushas in Sanskrit and a Germanic figure whose name survives in Easter all descend from a single word in the language that lies behind all of them, which makes her about the best-attested deity in the whole reconstructed pantheon.
How old is the name Dawn?
Dawn first appears in US birth records in 1923 — 102 years ago. The typical Dawn alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 800 people named Dawn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dawn most popular?
Dawn peaked in 1969, reaching #1086 nationally. See the whole 1969 chart.
Where it comes from
From a single dawn goddess behind Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and Germanic to Dawn
The story of Dawn
Eos asked Zeus to make her lover Tithonus immortal and forgot to ask for eternal youth as well. He was granted exactly what she requested: he could not die. He aged, and went on aging, past strength and past sight and past speech, until she shut him in a room where he babbled endlessly, and in the later versions of the story he shrank and dried until he became a cicada. It is one of the oldest cautionary tales in Europe about asking for the wrong thing, and it is told in a poem that is nearly three thousand years old.
Meaning
daybreak
The English word is Germanic and ordinary, and it was given as a name in the twentieth century along with a set of other plain English words. The interest is in what the older languages did with the same idea. The dawn goddess was consistently imagined as young, as a daughter, and as endlessly repeating herself, and her stories in Greek and Latin turn on that — she takes mortal lovers and they age and she does not.
How the name formed
- a single dawn goddess behind Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and Germanic
- the Romans call her Aurora and later name the northern lights after her
- the English word dawn in ordinary use
- given as a name from the late nineteenth century
- an American peak at the start of the 1970s
Related forms: Aurora · Eos · Aube
Pronouncing Dawn
DAWN
One syllable, exactly like the word. In accents that distinguish them the vowel is the one in caught rather than the one in cot, and in most American accents there is no difference left to make.
Nicknames for Dawn
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
- 1923
- Most boys named
- 196743 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1086reached in 1969
- Change vs 1995
- +20.0%6 in 2024, 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.
Dawn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aurora in Latin — related form
- Eos in Greek — related form
- Aube in French — related form
Dawns among us
people named Dawn 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
Dawn 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
- It is a plain English word that everybody can read, spell and say.
- The image behind it is universally positive and needs no explanation.
- It works for a child of either sex, though the record leans heavily one way.
- It is one of the most precisely dated names in the record and places its bearer's generation immediately.
- A word name carries the whole word, including every metaphorical use of it.
- There is nothing to shorten, which some people mind more than others.
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What they receive
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Dawn
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Dawns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Dawn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dawn in 2025?
- Dawn is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Dawn with classmates?
- Dawn 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 Dawn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dawn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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