Dayan
Masculine · “judge”
Dayan is given to both — 542 boys and 204 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Dayan is the Hebrew word for a judge — specifically a judge of a rabbinical court, which is a title before it is a name.
How old is the name Dayan?
Dayan first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Dayan is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Dayan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dayan most popular?
Dayan peaked in 2024, reaching #3001 nationally. Today it ranks #3848, 847 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Dayan
Ours, offered as ours. Dayan is one of the words in the blessing said on hearing of a death — barukh dayan ha-emet, blessed is the true judge — which is among the shortest and heaviest formulas in the liturgy. It is also a surname carried by a well-known Israeli general. Whether an American family using it means the Hebrew judge, the Turkish endurance or the Spanish Day- family is not recoverable, and all three are real.
Meaningscholars disagree
judge
Hebrew dayan is a judge, from a root meaning to judge, and is the title of a member of a beth din. A separate Turkish and Azeri dayan means to endure or stand firm, and a Spanish-language Dayan may come from the Day- family instead. All three are in use.
Pronouncing Dayan
dah-YAHN
Two syllables with the stress on the second. English speakers often say DAY-an.
Nicknames for Dayan
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
- 1968
- Most boys named
- 202441 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3001reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −31.7%28 in 2025, from 41
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.
Dayan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dayan in Hebrew — same name
- Dayan in Turkish — related form
- Dayán in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, New York.
Dayans among us
people named Dayan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 61,003 born in 2025 was named Dayan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dayan
- #3848
- Dayan on the 2025 chart
- #882
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dayan went to 28 boys in 2025, but Dayyan, Daian and Daiyan are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 46, which makes it the 882nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,966 places above the chart.
- Dayan28
- Dayyan8
- Daian5
- Daiyan5
About 1 boy in 37,132 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,003 for Dayan 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 Artavious test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dayan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Artavious climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Artavious's path sketches the road Dayan is walking now.
Dayan 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 Dayan is headed
Dayan looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 36% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Dayan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dayan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three real languages have a word or name at this sound.
- Five letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- Open vowels make it easy to say in most languages.
- The stress moves to the front in English mouths.
- The Hebrew sense is a title of office, which is an unusual thing to be named.
- Dayan, Dayana and Dyan are all close in an English ear.
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Dayan
Masculine · #3848 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dayans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Dayan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dayan?
- Dayan is the most-used spelling in US records — 28 of the 46 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Dayyan, Daian and Daiyan.
- How popular is the name Dayan in 2025?
- Dayan ranks #3848 among US boy names in 2025, with 28 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dayan?
- About 1 in every 61,003 US boys born in 2025 was named Dayan — 28 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dayan with classmates?
- Dayan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dayan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Armand#3848 · Tracy#3848 · Stafford#3848 · Dewey#3848 · Donny#3848 · Trevion#3848 · Coltyn#3848 · Isreal#3848
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dayan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dayan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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