Dayana
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my judge".
Name Census estimates that about 15,006 living Americans carry the first name Dayana. It sits at #494 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dayana today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dayana births was 2008 (777 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dayana. 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 Dayana with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Dayana is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
15K
~ 1 in 22,841 Americans
Peak year
2008
777 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#494
Tracked since 1970
Census
Dayana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,376 people with the first name Dayana, which placed it at #2,040 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
#2,040
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,376 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
89.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dayana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dayana is Hispanic at 89.9%. The next largest groups are Black (4.5%) and White (4.1%). 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 Dayana 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 Dayana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino89.9% · 12,028
- Black or African American4.5% · 604
- White4.1% · 549
- Two or more races0.7% · 94
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 83
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 18
Popularity
Dayana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dayana from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,759 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Dayana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dayana 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 Dayana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dayanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Dayana, while Rhode Island, Delaware, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 344 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dayana
The name Dayana has its origins in the Arabic language, where it is derived from the word "dana," which means "high" or "elevated." It is believed to have emerged during the medieval period in the Middle East and North Africa, where Arabic culture and language were prevalent.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dayana can be found in the 12th century, when it was mentioned in an Arabic literary work, "The Book of Songs," by the renowned poet and philosopher Ibn Hazm. In this text, the name was used to describe a woman of great beauty and virtue.
Throughout history, the name Dayana has been associated with several notable figures. One of the earliest was Dayana al-Andalusia, a renowned poetess and scholar who lived in Andalusia (modern-day Spain) during the 11th century. Her works were highly regarded for their lyrical beauty and insightful observations on life and love.
In the 14th century, Dayana al-Qahira was a prominent physician and philosopher in Cairo, Egypt. She was renowned for her contributions to the field of medicine and her insightful writings on ethics and moral philosophy.
During the Renaissance period, Dayana Boleyn, a distant relative of the ill-fated Anne Boleyn, gained recognition as a talented artist and patron of the arts. Her works were admired for their technical skill and vivid depictions of life in 16th-century England.
In the 19th century, Dayana Salama was a pioneering Egyptian writer and feminist who advocated for women's rights and education. Her writings and activism played a significant role in shaping the early feminist movement in the Middle East.
More recently, Dayana Mendoza, born in 1986, is a Venezuelan model and beauty queen who won the Miss Universe pageant in 2008. Her success and poise on the international stage brought renewed attention to the name Dayana in modern times.
While the name Dayana has endured for centuries, its origins and cultural significance remain rooted in the rich Arabic heritage, where it symbolized dignity, grace, and the pursuit of knowledge and virtue.
People
Dayana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dayana 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
Dayana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dayana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,006 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dayana 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 22,841 US residents.
Is Dayana a common name?
We classify Dayana as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 15,205 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dayana most popular?
The single biggest year for Dayana was 2008, when 777 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dayana is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dayana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,376 people with the name Dayana, or 4.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,040 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 Dayana 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 Dayana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dayana appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,375 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Dayana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dayana is Hispanic at 89.9%. The next largest groups are Black (4.5%) and White (4.1%). 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 Dayana most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Dayana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.9% (12,028 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 Dayana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dayana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dayana 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 Dayana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dayana 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 Dayana 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 Dayana as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.