Dael
A Scandinavian masculine name meaning "from the valley".
Name Census estimates that about 504 living Americans carry the first name Dael. It is a predominantly male name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Dael today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dael births was 2022 (62 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dael. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
504
~ 1 in 680,068 Americans
Peak year
2022
62 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,474
Tracked since 2003
Census
Dael in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 389 people with the first name Dael, which placed it at #24,672 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#24,672
National first-name rank
People counted
389
389 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
57.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dael
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dael is Hispanic at 57.6%. The next largest groups are White (23.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dael described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dael at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino57.6% · 224
- White23.4% · 91
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.8% · 38
- Black or African American6.4% · 25
- Two or more races2.8% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Dael
Out of the 508 babies given the name Dael since 1880, 99.0% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Dael as a male name
- Ranked #2,474 in 2024
- 55 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (58 births)
Dael as a female name
- Ranked #15,837 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2022 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dael leans strongly male. 318 people counted with this name were male (81.7%), compared with 71 female bearers (18.3%).
Popularity
Dael: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dael from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 236 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dael by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dael during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Daels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Dael, while Arizona, New York, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 40 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dael
The name Dael is believed to have originated from the Old Norse language, tracing back to the Viking era in Scandinavia. It is derived from the Old Norse word "dalr," which means "valley" or "dale." This name likely emerged as a reference to someone who lived in a valley or was associated with a particular valley region.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dael can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of medieval literary works that recount the lives and adventures of Norse settlers in Iceland. In these sagas, Dael is mentioned as the name of a Viking warrior who lived in the 9th century.
In the 11th century, a notable figure named Dael the Wise was a revered skald (poet) in the court of King Canute the Great, who ruled over England, Denmark, and Norway. Dael's poems and songs were celebrated for their eloquence and wisdom, and he played a significant role in preserving and promoting Norse culture and traditions.
During the 12th century, a Benedictine monk named Dael of Rievaulx became renowned for his writings on spirituality and monastic life. His treatises on contemplation and the pursuit of inner peace were highly influential within the Catholic Church.
In the 15th century, a Dutch explorer named Dael van Brugge embarked on several voyages to the far reaches of the known world, including the coasts of West Africa and the Indian Ocean. His accounts of these expeditions provided valuable insights into the cultures and lands he encountered.
Another notable figure bearing the name Dael was Dael Orwin, an English painter and illustrator who lived from 1877 to 1948. His vibrant and imaginative works, often depicting scenes from mythology and folklore, were widely acclaimed during the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
While the name Dael has its roots in Old Norse and Scandinavian cultures, it has been adopted and used across various regions and time periods, reflecting the diverse histories and traditions associated with this distinctive name.
People
Dael + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dael as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dael: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dael?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 504 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dael going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 680,068 US residents.
Is Dael a common name?
We classify Dael as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 508 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dael most popular?
The single biggest year for Dael was 2022, when 62 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dael is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dael in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 389 people with the name Dael, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,672 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dael in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dael?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dael leans strongly male. 318 people counted with this name were male (81.7%), compared with 71 female bearers (18.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dael?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dael is Hispanic at 57.6%. The next largest groups are White (23.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dael most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Dael in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.6% (224 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dael in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dael a male name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Dael in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Dael still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dael in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dael can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Dael?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.