Doni
Feminine
Doni is given to both — 679 girls and 144 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Doni is a familiar form that at least three unrelated names produce, and the record holds it for sons as well as daughters. One of those names is not Germanic or Latin at all: it is a Semitic word that the Greeks took over without translating it.
How old is the name Doni?
Doni first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Doni alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 600 people named Doni are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Doni most popular?
Doni peaked in 1957, reaching #2028 nationally. See the whole 1957 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Doni
Adonis is not a Greek name. It is the Semitic word adon, lord — the same word as the Hebrew Adonai used in place of the divine name — and the Greeks took over both the word and the figure from the Levant without translating either, which is why the name means nothing in Greek. The festival attached to him is one of the strangest in the Greek calendar. Women planted quick-sprouting seeds in broken pots and shards, forced them in the heat on the rooftops so they shot up in days, and then let them wither and threw them out, wailing. The gardens of Adonis were designed to die; Plato uses them as a metaphor for anything grown too fast to last. The festival was a women's rite, held on the roofs, and the men of the city complained about the noise.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Donna is Italian for a lady, Donald is a Gaelic compound about ruling the world, and Adonis is a Semitic word for a lord. They have nothing in common. Registered alone, the short form points back to none of them.
Pronouncing Doni
DAHN-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The final i is a long e, as it is in Toni and Joni, rather than the long i of hi.
Nicknames for Doni
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
- 1946
- Most girls named
- 195729 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2028reached in 1957
- Change vs 2001
- 0.0%6 in 2013, 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.
Donis among us
people named Doni 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
Doni 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 works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- Four letters with no silent ones make it quick to write and simple to spell aloud.
- Two syllables with front stress is easy to say and hard to mishear.
- Donnie, Donni and Dani will all be written for it.
- It reads as a nickname, and people will ask what it stands for.
- Which longer name it belongs to is not recorded, so the answer has to be a family one.
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Doni
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Donis 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 Doni are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Doni in 2025?
- Doni is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Doni with classmates?
- Doni 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 Doni? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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