Denali
Masculine · “the tall one”
Denali is given to both — 684 boys and 1,795 girls since 1880. See Denali as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Denali is the Koyukon Athabaskan name for the highest mountain in North America, and it means the tall one — a description rather than a title, and the one the mountain now officially carries.
How old is the name Denali?
Denali first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Denali is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Denali are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Denali most popular?
Denali peaked in 2005, reaching #2653 nationally. Today it ranks #3583, 930 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From deenaalee to Denali
The story of Denali
Koyukon speakers have called the mountain Denali for as long as anyone can trace, and the descriptive name is exact: it rises further from base to summit than any other mountain on land. A gold prospector applied a presidential candidate's name in 1896 and it stuck officially for over a century. The federal restoration in 2015 formalized what Alaskans had continued to say. Its use as a given name is recent and is given to boys and girls alike.
Meaning
the tall one, the high one
From Koyukon deenaalee, generally read as the high one; the mountain in Alaska was renamed McKinley by a prospector in 1896 and officially restored to Denali in 2015, though the local name had never stopped being used.
How the name formed
- deenaalee
- Denali
Related forms: Deenaalee
Pronouncing Denali
duh-NAH-lee
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. There is little variation.
Nicknames for Denali
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
- 1994
- Most boys named
- 202342 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2653reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- +29.2%31 in 2025, from 24
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.
Denali in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Deenaalee in Koyukon — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Denalis among us
people named Denali are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 55,099 born in 2025 was named Denali
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ashford test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Denali's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ashford climbed just as high around 1914, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ashford's path sketches the road Denali is walking now.
Denali 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 Denali is headed
Denali should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Denali beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Denali in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that is exactly true of the thing it names.
- Read correctly on sight by most English speakers.
- It works for a boy or a girl, which is useful before a birth.
- It names a specific and very famous mountain, which invites a question about a connection.
- It is used for both sexes, so forms may guess wrong.
- The name belongs to a living Alaska Native language, which is worth knowing and respecting.
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What they receive
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Denali
Masculine · #3583 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Denalis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Denali are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Denali in 2025?
- Denali ranks #3583 among US boy names in 2025, with 31 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Denali?
- About 1 in every 55,099 US boys born in 2025 was named Denali — 31 in all.
- Will my child share the name Denali with classmates?
- Denali will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Denali
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Geoffrey#3583 · Robinson#3583 · Kimani#3583 · Emre#3583 · Yoan#3583 · Anirudh#3583 · Sutter#3583 · Heber#3583
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Denali? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Denali and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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