Dathan
Hebrew name meaning "fountain" or "laws of the fountains".
Name Census estimates that about 1,506 living Americans carry the first name Dathan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dathan today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dathan births was 2005 (53 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dathan. 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
1.5K
~ 1 in 227,593 Americans
Peak year
2005
53 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,441
Tracked since 1958
Census
Dathan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,301 people with the first name Dathan, which placed it at #10,308 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
#10,308
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,301 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dathan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dathan is White at 54.4%. The next largest groups are Black (20.8%) and Hispanic (10.9%). 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 Dathan 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 Dathan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.4% · 708
- Black or African American20.8% · 271
- Hispanic or Latino10.9% · 142
- Two or more races7.1% · 92
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 50
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 38
Popularity
Dathan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dathan from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 419 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
Dathan 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 Dathan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dathans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Texas, California, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Dathan, while Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dathan
The given name Dathan is of Hebrew origin, derived from the Biblical Hebrew name "Datan". It is believed to have emerged around the 13th century BCE during the time of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.
The name Dathan is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, specifically in the Book of Numbers. According to the biblical account, Dathan was one of the leaders who rebelled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt. Along with his accomplice Abiram, Dathan challenged Moses' authority and was eventually swallowed up by the earth as punishment.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dathan can be found in the Hebrew Bible, where it is spelled as "Datan" (דָּתָן) in the original Hebrew text. The name's meaning is not entirely clear, but it has been suggested to derive from the Hebrew root word "dun" or "din", which means "to judge" or "to contend".
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Dathan. One of the earliest was Dathan of Gaza, a 4th-century BCE philosopher and grammarian who lived during the time of Alexander the Great. Another notable figure was Dathan, a 1st-century Jewish scholar and Talmudist who lived in ancient Judea.
In more recent times, Dathan was the name of a Christian martyr from Samaria who was executed in the 4th century CE for refusing to renounce his faith. There was also Dathan, a 6th-century bishop of Milan, who served from 552 to 572 CE.
Additionally, the name Dathan was borne by Dathan Shultise, an American Revolutionary War soldier who fought in the Battle of Oriskany in 1777. Shultise was born in 1737 and died in 1825.
It is important to note that while the name Dathan has historical and biblical roots, its usage has been relatively uncommon compared to other names, especially in modern times.
People
Dathan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dathan 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
Dathan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dathan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,506 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dathan 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 227,593 US residents.
Is Dathan a common name?
We classify Dathan as "Rare". It ranks above 92.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,563 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dathan most popular?
The single biggest year for Dathan was 2005, when 53 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dathan is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dathan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,301 people with the name Dathan, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,308 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 Dathan 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 Dathan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dathan appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,300 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Dathan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dathan is White at 54.4%. The next largest groups are Black (20.8%) and Hispanic (10.9%). 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 Dathan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dathan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.4% (708 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 Dathan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dathan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dathan 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 Dathan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dathan 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 Dathan 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 Dathan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.