Don
Feminine · “World ruler”
Don is given to boys far more often — 167,632 boys against 1,207 girls since 1880. See Don as a boy name
A don at Oxford and a don in Sicily are the same word. Both come from the Latin for the master of a household, one by way of Spanish and Italian titles and one by way of the university habit of calling a senior member of a college by a title borrowed from Spain, and neither has anything to do with the name Donald.
How old is the name Don?
Don first appears in US birth records in 1907 — 118 years ago. The typical Don alive today was born around 1941, making them about 84 years old. About 600 people named Don are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Don most popular?
Don peaked in 1931, reaching #1127 nationally. See the whole 1931 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Domhnall to Don
The story of Don
There is a third don, older than both, and it is a river. The Scythian word for water or river was something like danu, and it is sitting in the names of four of the great rivers running into the Black Sea: the Don, the Dnieper, the Dniester and the Danube, all named by Iranian-speaking peoples on the steppe more than two thousand years ago and all still carrying it. The same root turns up in the Rhone and possibly in a river in Yorkshire. Rivers keep their names better than anything else on a map, because everybody who arrives needs to talk about them at once and asks the people already there what they are called; conquerors rename towns and leave the water alone.
Meaningscholars disagree
World ruler
If the name is short for Donald, the Gaelic joins a word for the world to one for a ruler. If it is used on its own, as it has been for a century, it is simply itself. The Spanish and Italian title is unrelated to either, and so is the Russian river, and all three are in the same three letters.
How the name formed
- Domhnall
- Donald
- Don
Related forms: Domhnall · Donal
Pronouncing Don
DON
One syllable. The vowel is the one in cot for most Americans and the one in caught for others, since the two have merged over much of the country; there is no other place the name can vary.
Nicknames for Don
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
- 1907
- Most girls named
- 193140 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1127reached in 1931
- Change vs 1985
- −16.7%5 in 1992, from 6
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.
Don in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Domhnall in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Donal in Irish — related form
Dons among us
people named Don 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
Don 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
- Three letters, one syllable, and no ambiguity of any kind about how it is said.
- It has been in use as a full name rather than a shortening for a century.
- The formal name behind it is available if a longer version is ever wanted.
- The Italian and Spanish title is widely known and the criminal association is immediate for many Americans.
- The record carries it for girls in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- It is strongly dated to the middle of the last century in American ears.
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Don
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Dons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Don are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Don in 2025?
- Don is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Don with classmates?
- Don will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
Dorothy#421 · Donna#1962 · Deborah#862 · Debra#4460 · Diane#2607 · Doris#2895 · Denise#1673 · Danielle#549
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Don? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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