Danitra
A feminine name derived from French meaning "morning star".
Name Census estimates that about 335 living Americans carry the first name Danitra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Danitra today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Danitra births was 1986 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Danitra. 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
335
~ 1 in 1,023,147 Americans
Peak year
1986
50 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
1998 SSA rank
#10,340
Tracked since 1954
Census
Danitra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 338 people with the first name Danitra, which placed it at #27,177 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
#27,177
National first-name rank
People counted
338
338 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
82.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Danitra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danitra is Black at 82.2%. The next largest groups are White (6.8%) and Two or More Races (5.3%). 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 Danitra 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 Danitra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American82.2% · 278
- White6.8% · 23
- Two or more races5.3% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 3
Popularity
Danitra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Danitra from the 1950s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 181 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Danitra remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Danitra 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 Danitra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Danitras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Georgia, New York, South Carolina recorded the most babies named Danitra, while Texas, South Carolina, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Danitra
The name Danitra is believed to be of Malagasy origin, stemming from the island nation of Madagascar. It is thought to be derived from the Malagasy words "danitra," meaning "sky" or "heaven," and "tra," which is a suffix denoting a person or thing. Thus, the name Danitra can be interpreted as "heavenly one" or "one from the sky."
The earliest recorded use of the name Danitra dates back to the 17th century, during the height of the Merina Kingdom in central Madagascar. It was a popular name among the Merina people, who were the dominant ethnic group on the island at that time. The name's celestial connotations likely held significant cultural and spiritual significance for the Malagasy people.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as Madagascar fell under French colonial rule, the name Danitra gained more widespread recognition and began to appear in French records and literature. One notable figure who bore the name was Danitra Vavitsara (1896-1972), a Malagasy writer and activist who fought for the island's independence from France.
Outside of Madagascar, the name Danitra has been relatively uncommon throughout history, but a few notable individuals have carried it. One such person was Danitra Vance (1958-1994), an American actress and comedian best known for her work on the sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" in the late 1980s.
Another notable Danitra was Danitra Brown (1962-2022), an American fitness instructor and motivational speaker who gained fame for her high-energy workout videos in the 1990s and 2000s.
In the realm of literature, Danitra was the name of a character in the children's book series "The Tales of a Seventh-Grade Besties" by American author Kimberly Willis Holt, which was published in the early 2000s.
While not a widely popular name, Danitra has maintained a niche following and cultural significance, particularly among those with ties to Madagascar or an appreciation for its unique linguistic and cultural heritage.
People
Danitra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Danitra 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
Danitra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Danitra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 335 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Danitra 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 1,023,147 US residents.
Is Danitra a common name?
We classify Danitra as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 358 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Danitra most popular?
The single biggest year for Danitra was 1986, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Danitra is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Danitra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 338 people with the name Danitra, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,177 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 Danitra 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 Danitra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Danitra appears almost entirely female. Of the 333 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Danitra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danitra is Black at 82.2%. The next largest groups are White (6.8%) and Two or More Races (5.3%). 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 Danitra most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Danitra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.2% (278 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 Danitra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Danitra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Danitra in the SSA data are female. 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 Danitra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Danitra 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 Danitra 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 Danitra?
See how many people have the name Danitra on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.