Danyelle
A feminine name of French origin meaning "God is my judge".
Name Census estimates that about 5,501 living Americans carry the first name Danyelle. It is a predominantly female name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Danyelle today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Danyelle births was 1992 (218 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Danyelle. 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 Danyelle with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.5K
~ 1 in 62,308 Americans
Peak year
1992
218 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
1979 SSA rank
#5,498
Tracked since 1961
Census
Danyelle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,800 people with the first name Danyelle, which placed it at #4,042 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
#4,042
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,800 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Danyelle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danyelle is White at 51.3%. The next largest groups are Black (34.6%) and Hispanic (7.6%). 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 Danyelle 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 Danyelle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.3% · 2,462
- Black or African American34.6% · 1,659
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 364
- Two or more races5.1% · 247
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 33
Gender
Gender distribution for Danyelle
Out of the 5,800 babies given the name Danyelle since 1880, 99.4% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Danyelle as a male name
- Ranked #5,498 in 1979
- 6 male births in 1979
- Peak: 1977 (10 births)
Danyelle as a female name
- Ranked #10,442 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1992 (218 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Danyelle appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,798 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Danyelle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Danyelle from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,704 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Danyelle 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 Danyelle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Danyelles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. California, Texas, Michigan recorded the most babies named Danyelle, while South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 99 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Danyelle
The name Danyelle is a modern English variant of the Hebrew name Danielle, which is derived from the biblical name Daniel. Daniel is a masculine name that means "God is my judge" or "God has judged." The name's origins can be traced back to the Old Testament, where Daniel was a prophet and advisor to the kings of Babylon.
In the Book of Daniel, the prophet Daniel is depicted as a wise and faithful servant of God who interpreted dreams and visions. His unwavering devotion to his faith and his ability to interpret dreams earned him the respect of the Babylonian kings. The name Daniel became popular among Jews and later among Christians as a symbol of faith and wisdom.
The feminine form, Danielle, emerged in France during the Middle Ages. It gained popularity in the 17th century and was often associated with French nobility and aristocracy. One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Danielle was in the 17th century French novel, "La Princesse de Clèves" by Madame de La Fayette.
While the name Danielle has been relatively common throughout history, the variant spelling Danyelle is more recent and appears to have emerged in the 20th century. One of the earliest recorded notable individuals with the name Danyelle was Danyelle Ferguson, an American actress born in 1976.
Another notable Danyelle was Danyelle Wolf, an American model and actress born in 1977. She appeared in various television shows and films in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In the world of sports, Danyelle Sargent was an American track and field athlete who competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She specialized in the high jump and was born in 1985.
Danyelle Ferguson, an American singer and songwriter, gained recognition in the early 2000s for her work in the R&B and pop genres. She was born in 1984.
Lastly, Danyelle Yvette Woodard is an American actress and producer, known for her roles in films such as "Soul Food" and "The Notebook." She was born in 1973 and has had a successful career spanning several decades.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Danyelle, a modern variant of the biblical name Daniel, which has its roots in Hebrew and holds significant meaning in both Jewish and Christian traditions.
People
Danyelle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Danyelle 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
Danyelle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Danyelle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,501 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Danyelle 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 62,308 US residents.
Is Danyelle a common name?
We classify Danyelle as "Rare". It ranks above 96.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,800 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Danyelle most popular?
The single biggest year for Danyelle was 1992, when 218 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Danyelle is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Danyelle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,800 people with the name Danyelle, or 1.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,042 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 Danyelle 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 Danyelle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Danyelle appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,798 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Danyelle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Danyelle is White at 51.3%. The next largest groups are Black (34.6%) and Hispanic (7.6%). 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 Danyelle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Danyelle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.3% (2,462 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 Danyelle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Danyelle a female name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Danyelle 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 Danyelle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Danyelle 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 Danyelle 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 common is the name Danyelle?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.