Diana
Masculine · “Bright”
Diana is given to girls far more often — 368,487 girls against 1,284 boys since 1880. See Diana as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1926 — 99 years ago. The typical Diana alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 1,100 people named Diana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Diana most popular?
Diana peaked in 1962, reaching #1423 nationally. See the whole 1962 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.
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
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1926
- Most boys named
- 198946 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1423reached in 1962
- Change vs 2007
- +80.0%9 in 2008, 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.
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
Dianas among us
people named Diana 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
Diana 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 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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Diana
Masculine
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 1,100 people named Diana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Diana in 2025?
- Diana is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Diana with classmates?
- Diana 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 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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