Danner
A variant of the medieval English name "Danus", derived from the Old English "Dana", meaning "Dane" or "From Denmark".
Name Census estimates that about 396 living Americans carry the first name Danner. It is a predominantly male name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Danner today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Danner births was 2011 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Danner. 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
396
~ 1 in 865,541 Americans
Peak year
2011
26 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,152
Tracked since 1989
Census
Danner in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 482 people with the first name Danner, which placed it at #21,162 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
#21,162
National first-name rank
People counted
482
482 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Danner
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danner is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.4%) and Black (3.5%). 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 Danner 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 Danner at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.7% · 389
- Hispanic or Latino10.4% · 50
- Black or African American3.5% · 17
- Two or more races2.5% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Danner
Danner leans heavily male at 98.8% of total registrations, but 5 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Danner as a male name
- Ranked #9,152 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (26 births)
Danner as a female name
- Ranked #18,195 in 2008
- 5 female births in 2008
- Peak: 2008 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Danner leans strongly male. 421 people counted with this name were male (87.0%), compared with 63 female bearers (13.0%).
Popularity
Danner: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Danner from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 171 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Danner 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 Danner during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Danners live
Origin
Meaning and history of Danner
The name Danner has its origins in the German language, where it is believed to have emerged during the Middle Ages, around the 13th or 14th century. The name is derived from the German word "Tanne," which translates to "fir tree" or "pine tree." This connection suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who lived near or worked with fir or pine trees, perhaps a forester or a woodsman.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Danner can be found in the chronicles of the Cistercian monastery of Eberbach in present-day Germany, dating back to the late 13th century. The records mention a certain "Dannerus," which is believed to be an early variation of the name Danner.
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period, the name Danner remained relatively obscure, with few notable individuals bearing this moniker. However, in the 17th and 18th centuries, several prominent figures emerged with the name Danner.
One such individual was Johann Danner, a German astronomer and mathematician born in 1630 in Nuremberg. He made significant contributions to the field of astronomy and was instrumental in refining astronomical calculations and observations during his time.
Another notable Danner was Johann Andreas Danner, a German Baroque composer and organist born in 1676 in Nördlingen. His compositions, particularly his organ works, were highly regarded and influential in the development of Baroque music.
In the 19th century, the name Danner gained further recognition with the birth of Johann Gottlieb Danner, a German-American artist and lithographer born in 1800 in Saxony. He is renowned for his detailed lithographic illustrations of plants and flowers, which were widely circulated and admired during his lifetime.
Moving into the 20th century, one cannot overlook the significance of Wilbur Danner, an American athlete and coach born in 1899 in Missouri. He was a prominent track and field coach at the University of Southern California, where he mentored numerous Olympic champions and helped establish the university's reputation as a powerhouse in the sport.
Finally, in more recent times, the name Danner has been associated with the Danner Boots company, founded in 1932 by Charles Danner in Portland, Oregon. The company has become renowned for its high-quality, durable boots designed for outdoor activities and military use, earning a respected place in the footwear industry.
People
Danner + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Danner 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
Danner: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Danner?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 396 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Danner 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 865,541 US residents.
Is Danner a common name?
We classify Danner as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 401 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Danner most popular?
The single biggest year for Danner was 2011, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Danner is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Danner in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 482 people with the name Danner, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,162 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 Danner 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 Danner?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Danner leans strongly male. 421 people counted with this name were male (87.0%), compared with 63 female bearers (13.0%). 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 Danner?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danner is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.4%) and Black (3.5%). 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 Danner most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Danner in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.7% (389 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 Danner in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Danner a male name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Danner 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 Danner still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Danner 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 Danner 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 Danner as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.