Diana
Feminine · “Bright”
Diana is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 368,487 girls against 1,284 boys since 1880. See Diana as a boy name
Diana was the goddess ordinary Romans could actually reach. Her temple on the Aventine was a place of asylum, her festival was a holiday for slaves, and the plebeians treated her as theirs in a way they did not treat the state gods on the hill opposite.
How old is the name Diana?
Diana was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Diana alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 314,000 people named Diana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Diana most popular?
Diana peaked in 1946, reaching #42 nationally. Today it ranks #244, 202 places below that high. See the whole 1946 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Diana
The Aventine temple was outside the old religious boundary of the city, which mattered: it was where the people who were not fully inside Roman life went. Her festival fell in the middle of August and was kept as a day off for slaves, who could not be made to work and who washed their hair for it; the sanctuary offered refuge to anyone who reached it. The other famous temple was at Ephesus, and the scene the New Testament records there is not a religious argument but an economic one. A silversmith who made souvenir shrines of the goddess called a meeting of the trade, pointed out that the new preaching was ruining the business, and got a riot going in the theater that chanted her name for two hours. The name went on into the Renaissance as a figure for chastity and hunting, and into English as one of the steadiest women's names there is.
Meaning
Bright, of the daylight
Built on the same ancient root as the Latin word for a day and the first part of the name Jupiter, with an underlying sense of brightness or the open sky. The association with the moon and with hunting came later and from Greek influence; the oldest layer of the name is about daylight rather than moonlight, which is the opposite of what most people are told.
Cultural footprint
Diana, Princess of Wales (b. 1961) — The "People's Princess"
Diana Ross (b. 1944) — Motown legend who fronted The Supremes
Diana Taurasi (b. 1982) — The WNBA's all-time scoring leader
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Pronouncing Diana
die-AN-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle in English. Spanish and Italian say dee-AH-nah, with a long first vowel, and French drops the last syllable altogether. All three are the same name and all three are current in the United States.
Nicknames for Diana
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 1981 — Royal wedding of Charles and Diana
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19579,433 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #42reached in 1946
- Change vs 2022
- −3.0%1,277 in 2025, from 1,316
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.
Diana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Diana in Spanish — same name
- Diana in Italian — same name
- Diane in French — same name
- Diana in Russian — same name
- Diana in Romanian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Dianas among us
people named Diana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,259 born in 2025 was named Diana
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 Rita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Diana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rita climbed just as high around 1930, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rita's path sketches the road Diana is walking now.
Diana has held the top-100 across 6 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Diana is headed
Diana 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.
Diana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Diana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is spelled identically in Spanish, Italian, Russian and Romanian, and needs no adjustment anywhere.
- The name has been in continuous English use for centuries without ever sounding old-fashioned.
- Several short forms in different registers, from the brisk Di to the entirely disguised Annie.
- The name is on record for boys in small numbers, so it is not quite the absolute signal people assume.
- One twentieth-century bearer is famous enough that the name carries her story for a whole generation.
- Two live pronunciations exist in America, one English and one Spanish, and families with both will have to choose.
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What they receive
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Diana
Feminine · #244 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dianas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 314,000 people named Diana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Diana in 2025?
- Diana ranks #244 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,277 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Diana?
- About 1 in every 1,259 US girls born in 2025 was named Diana — 1,277 in all.
- Will my child share the name Diana with classmates?
- Diana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Diana's chart?
- Diana climbed after 1981 — Royal wedding of Charles and Diana.
Ranked beside Diana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ana#245 · Brynlee#243 · Delaney#242 · Miriam#246 · Collins#241 · Amora#247 · Camille#240 · Reagan#248
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Diana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Diana and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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