Danilo
A masculine name of Spanish origin meaning "little Daniel" or "brave leader".
Name Census estimates that about 4,402 living Americans carry the first name Danilo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Danilo today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Danilo births was 2022 (209 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Danilo. 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 Danilo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.4K
~ 1 in 77,863 Americans
Peak year
2022
209 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,094
Tracked since 1946
Census
Danilo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,923 people with the first name Danilo, which placed it at #2,207 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
#2,207
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,923 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
49.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Danilo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danilo is Hispanic at 49.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (37.5%) and White (10.7%). 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 Danilo 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 Danilo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino49.3% · 5,874
- Asian and Pacific Islander37.5% · 4,474
- White10.7% · 1,280
- Black or African American1.3% · 151
- Two or more races1.1% · 134
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 10
Popularity
Danilo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Danilo from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,390 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Danilo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Danilo 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 Danilo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Danilos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Danilo, while Tennessee, Oklahoma, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 145 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Danilo
The name Danilo has its origins in the Slavic languages, particularly in the Serbian and Croatian dialects. It is a diminutive form of the name Daniel, derived from the Hebrew name "Daniyyel," which means "God is my judge." The name Danilo gained widespread popularity in the Balkan region during the Middle Ages.
In the 11th century, the name Danilo was borne by several notable figures in Serbian history, including Prince Danilo, the nephew of the Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja. Prince Danilo played a significant role in the establishment of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the construction of numerous monasteries and churches throughout the region.
The name Danilo also appears in religious texts and historical records from the Byzantine Empire. In the 12th century, a monk named Danilo wrote a biography of his teacher, St. Sava, the first Archbishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church. This work, known as the "Life of St. Sava," is considered one of the earliest and most important literary works in Serbian history.
Moving forward in time, one of the most famous individuals named Danilo was Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš, who ruled as the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro from 1697 to 1735. He played a crucial role in the struggle for Montenegrin independence and is revered as a national hero in the country.
Another notable figure was Danilo II Petrović-Njegoš, who reigned as the Prince of Montenegro from 1851 to 1860. He is credited with modernizing the Montenegrin state and establishing diplomatic relations with various European powers.
In the 20th century, Danilo Dolci, an Italian social activist and educator, gained recognition for his non-violent campaigns against poverty and social injustice in Sicily. He was born in 1924 and passed away in 1997.
While the name Danilo has its roots in the Slavic cultures of the Balkans, it has since spread to other parts of the world, particularly in Latin American countries like Brazil, where it has become a popular name choice.
People
Danilo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Danilo 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
Danilo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Danilo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,402 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Danilo 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 77,863 US residents.
Is Danilo a common name?
We classify Danilo as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,525 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Danilo most popular?
The single biggest year for Danilo was 2022, when 209 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Danilo is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Danilo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,923 people with the name Danilo, or 3.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,207 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 Danilo 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 Danilo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Danilo appears almost entirely male. Of the 11,920 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Danilo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danilo is Hispanic at 49.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (37.5%) and White (10.7%). 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 Danilo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Danilo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.3% (5,874 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 Danilo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Danilo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Danilo 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 Danilo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Danilo 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 Danilo 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 have the name Danilo?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Danilo on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.