Danel
Combination of Dana meaning "small" and El meaning "God" in Hebrew.
Name Census estimates that about 417 living Americans carry the first name Danel. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 69.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Danel today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Danel births was 1969 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Danel. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Danel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
417
~ 1 in 821,953 Americans
Peak year
1969
19 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2020 SSA rank
#10,895
Tracked since 1920
Census
Danel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,074 people with the first name Danel, which placed it at #11,785 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
#11,785
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,074 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Danel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danel is White at 50.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.3%) and Black (12.7%). 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 Danel 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 Danel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.6% · 543
- Hispanic or Latino29.3% · 315
- Black or African American12.7% · 136
- Two or more races3.2% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 14
Gender
Gender distribution for Danel
Danel is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 488 total registrations, 341 (69.9%) were male and 147 (30.1%) were female.
Danel as a male name
- Ranked #10,895 in 2020
- 6 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1957 (10 births)
Danel as a female name
- Ranked #13,779 in 1992
- 5 female births in 1992
- Peak: 1970 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Danel on both sides of the split. Of the 1,068 people counted with this name, 809 were male (75.7%) and 259 were female (24.3%).
Popularity
Danel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Danel from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 133 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Danel 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 Danel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Danel
The given name Danel has its roots in the ancient Semitic languages of the Middle East, particularly in the Canaanite and Phoenician cultures of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550-1200 BCE). It is derived from the Semitic root "dn" or "dyn," which is associated with words meaning "to judge" or "to govern." This suggests that the name may have originally been given to individuals with authority or leadership roles within their communities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Danel can be found in the Epic of Aqhat, an ancient Ugaritic narrative poem discovered in the ruins of the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit. In this epic, Danel is a prominent figure, described as a legendary hero and warrior. The text dates back to around the 14th century BCE, providing evidence of the name's usage during this period.
In the Bible, the name Danel is mentioned in the Book of Ezra, where it is listed as the name of one of the Israelites who returned from the Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem in the 5th century BCE. This biblical reference further attests to the antiquity and persistence of the name within the Semitic cultural sphere.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Danel. One example is Danel, a 7th-century prince of the Khazars, a Turkic semi-nomadic people who ruled over a vast territory in modern-day southern Russia and northwestern Kazakhstan. Another is Danel, a 12th-century poet and scholar from the town of Beziers in southern France, who is known for his contributions to the Occitan literary tradition.
In the realm of religion, Danel was the name of a 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet from Persia, renowned for his spiritual teachings and poetic works. Additionally, Danel Chetwynd (1973-2006) was a British author and journalist known for his books on occult and esoteric subjects.
Lastly, in the field of art, Danel Sorano (1909-1994) was a Mexican painter and muralist, recognized for his vibrant depictions of rural life and indigenous cultures in his homeland.
These examples, spanning various cultures, time periods, and disciplines, attest to the enduring presence and diverse applications of the ancient name Danel throughout human history.
People
Danel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Danel 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
Danel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Danel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 417 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Danel 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 821,953 US residents.
Is Danel a common name?
We classify Danel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 488 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Danel most popular?
The single biggest year for Danel was 1969, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Danel is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Danel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,074 people with the name Danel, or 0.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,785 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 Danel 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 Danel?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Danel on both sides of the split. Of the 1,068 people counted with this name, 809 were male (75.7%) and 259 were female (24.3%). 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 Danel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danel is White at 50.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.3%) and Black (12.7%). 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 Danel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Danel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.6% (543 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 Danel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Danel a male name?
Yes, 69.9% of people registered as Danel 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 Danel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Danel 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 Danel 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 Americans are named Danel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.