Donna
Feminine · “lady”
Donna is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 831,641 girls against 2,233 boys since 1880. See Donna as a boy name
Donna is unusual among names in never having belonged to anybody first. Most words that became names passed through a person: a saint, a character, a family. This one went straight from being an ordinary word for a woman to being a name for one, with nobody in between.
How old is the name Donna?
Donna was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Donna alive today was born around 1954, making them about 71 years old. About 614,000 people named Donna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Donna most popular?
Donna peaked in 1959, reaching #5 nationally. Today it ranks #1962, 1,957 places below that high. See the whole 1959 chart.
Where it comes from
From domina to Donna
The story of Donna
The Latin word behind it described a specific and powerful position. A domina ran the household: she had authority over the slaves, the stores, the accounts and the domestic religion, and in law she was the counterpart of the man who owned the property rather than a member of his staff. The word is built directly on the one for a house, and it names the person in charge of it. That is a considerably harder-edged thing than the modern softness of the name suggests. Somewhere between the Roman household and the American nursery a word for the woman who held the keys became a word for a nice girl, and nothing in the spelling records the change.
Meaning
lady
The Italian common noun, descended from a Latin word for the mistress of a household. It is a title and a form of address in Italian rather than a name, which is why Italians do not generally use it as one.
How the name formed
- domina
- donna
- Donna
Related forms: Donna · Doña · Dona
Pronouncing Donna
DON-uh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Italian says it the same way, which is unusual for a borrowed word and makes the name stable across languages.
Nicknames for Donna
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 196034,138 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #5reached in 1959
- Change vs 2022
- −3.0%98 in 2025, from 101
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.
Donna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Donna in Italian — same name
- Doña in Spanish — related form
- Dona in Portuguese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Donnas among us
people named Donna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 16,401 born in 2025 was named Donna
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 Joan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Donna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Joan climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Joan's path sketches the road Donna is walking now.
Donna 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 Donna is headed
Donna should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Donna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Donna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, warm and completely settled in sound.
- The meaning is dignified and easy to explain without any etymology.
- It has been in wide use long enough to be familiar to everyone.
- Its peak was so large and so concentrated that the name dates its bearer immediately.
- In Italian it is an ordinary noun rather than a name, which travelers will notice.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Donna
Feminine · #1962 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Donnas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 614,000 people named Donna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Donna in 2025?
- Donna ranks #1962 among US girl names in 2025, with 98 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Donna?
- About 1 in every 16,401 US girls born in 2025 was named Donna — 98 in all.
- Will my child share the name Donna with classmates?
- Donna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Donna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Romee#1962 · Janiya#1962 · Lucianna#1962 · Stormy#1962 · Asiyah#1962 · Kaori#1962 · Alanni#1962 · Tia#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Donna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Donna and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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