Dayana
Feminine · Latin roots · “Most often read as "divine”
Dayana is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 15,598 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Dayana is the way the ancient name Diana looks when it is written down the way Spanish speakers say it, with the long middle vowel stretched out: dah-YAH-nah. Behind it stands one of the oldest names in continuous European use, carried by the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt, whose name traces back to a root meaning bright daylight. In American records it is a relative newcomer, familiar in the Southwest and Florida without ever being everywhere.
How old is the name Dayana?
Dayana first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Dayana alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 15,500 people named Dayana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dayana most popular?
Dayana peaked in 2008, reaching #412 nationally. Today it ranks #716, 304 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Dayana appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Diana (Latin) to Dayana
The story of Dayana
Diana was the Roman goddess of the moon, wild animals and the hunt, and her name — from a root tied to daylight and the sky — was already old when the Empire spread it across Europe. It survived the fall of Rome as an ordinary given name in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Romania, and by the twentieth century it was common in Latin America too. Spanish pronounces Diana in three clear syllables, dee-AH-na, and Dayana is one of the spellings that grew up alongside it, closer to how the name sounds in some regional accents and easier for English readers to say aloud correctly. It reached US records through Spanish-speaking families, which is why Texas, California and Florida still hold it most strongly.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most often read as "divine, heavenly" — the sense behind Diana
The main reading takes Dayana as a phonetic spelling of Diana, whose name goes back to a Latin root connected with daylight and the divine, giving "heavenly" or "divine". A second route is through the longer name Dayanara, which has circulated in Puerto Rico and the wider Caribbean and has no agreed etymology of its own. The form Dayana is also in independent use in Russian- and Turkic-speaking countries, where it may have arrived through Diana as well.
How the name formed
- DianaLatin
- DianaSpanish, Italian, Portuguese
- Dayana
Related forms: Diana · Diana · Diana · Diane · Диана (Diana) · Dayanna
Pronouncing Dayana
dah-YAH-nah
That is the Spanish reading, and the one the spelling is built for. Many English speakers say day-ANN-uh instead, treating it as a version of Diana. Both are in real use, so families with roots in either language usually settle on one early and correct gently.
Nicknames for Dayana
High
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 2008777 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #412reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- −36.7%392 in 2025, from 619
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.
Dayana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Diana in Spanish — same name
- Diana in Italian — same name
- Diana in Romanian — same name
- Diane in French — related form
- Диана (Diana) in Russian — transliteration
- Dayanna in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Dayanas among us
people named Dayana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,100 born in 2025 was named Dayana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dayana
- #716
- Dayana on the 2025 chart
- #504
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dayana went to 392 girls in 2025, but Dayanna and Daiana are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 526, which makes it the 504th most-given girls’ name of the year — 212 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,056 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,100 for Dayana 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 Ashlie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dayana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ashlie climbed just as high around 1986, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ashlie's path sketches the road Dayana is walking now.
Dayana 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 Dayana is headed
Dayana should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Dayana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dayana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Instantly recognizable as a form of Diana, so the name needs no explaining even where the spelling is new to someone.
- Works in both Spanish and English mouths, with a pronunciation that follows the letters in either language.
- Several ready-made short forms — Daya, Yana, Ana — all of which also work as full names.
- Carries one of the longest unbroken records in European naming, in continuous use since Roman antiquity.
- Dayana, Dayanna, Daiana, Dyana and plain Diana all sound close enough to be confused. Expect to spell it out, and expect Diana to be the default guess on forms and in email.
- The two pronunciations — dah-YAH-nah and day-ANN-uh — can pull in different directions between school, family and work. Most bearers pick one and simply repeat it.
- It has stepped back a little from its strongest years, so a child is likely to be the only Dayana in her class — pleasant for some families, and something to think about if being the only one is not what you want.
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What they receive
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Dayana
Feminine · Latin roots · #716 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dayanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 15,500 people named Dayana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dayana?
- Dayana is the most-used spelling in US records — 392 of the 526 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Dayanna and Daiana.
- How popular is the name Dayana in 2025?
- Dayana ranks #716 among US girl names in 2025, with 392 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dayana?
- About 1 in every 4,100 US girls born in 2025 was named Dayana — 392 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dayana with classmates?
- Dayana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dayana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lennox#716 · Ila#718 · Karsyn#718 · Remy#718 · Macy#718 · Leslie#712 · Mckinley#712 · Martha#712
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dayana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dayana and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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