Donald
A masculine given name of Scottish origin meaning "world ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 721,719 living Americans carry the first name Donald. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Donald today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Donald births was 1934 (30,517 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Donald. 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 Donald with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Donald is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 5,561 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Donald is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Donalds were born before 1970.
- • Compared to the 1930s, recent registration numbers for Donald have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
722K
~ 1 in 475 Americans
Peak year
1934
30,517 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2024 SSA rank
#672
Tracked since 1880
Census
Donald in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 715,630 people with the first name Donald, which placed it at #48 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
#48
National first-name rank
People counted
716K
715,630 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
236.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Donald
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donald is White at 86.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.4%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Donald 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 Donald at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.4% · 618,293
- Black or African American8.4% · 60,074
- Two or more races2.2% · 15,650
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 12,351
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 4,940
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 4,322
Gender
Gender distribution for Donald
Out of the 1,419,980 babies given the name Donald since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Donald as a male name
- Ranked #672 in 2024
- 405 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1934 (30,407 births)
Donald as a female name
- Ranked #11,921 in 2004
- 8 female births in 2004
- Peak: 1930 (175 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donald appears almost entirely male. Of the 715,624 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Donald: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Donald from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 284,862 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Donald 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 Donald during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 548 | 0 | 548 |
| 1890s | 1,786 | 5 | 1,791 |
| 1900s | 4,632 | 0 | 4,632 |
| 1910s | 57,002 | 197 | 57,199 |
| 1920s | 191,817 | 1,019 | 192,836 |
| 1930s | 283,716 | 1,146 | 284,862 |
| 1940s | 247,829 | 650 | 248,479 |
| 1950s | 273,576 | 751 | 274,327 |
| 1960s | 172,620 | 761 | 173,381 |
| 1970s | 82,440 | 581 | 83,021 |
| 1980s | 50,845 | 382 | 51,227 |
| 1990s | 26,756 | 61 | 26,817 |
| 2000s | 12,005 | 8 | 12,013 |
| 2010s | 6,708 | 0 | 6,708 |
| 2020s | 2,139 | 0 | 2,139 |
Geography
Where Donalds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the most babies named Donald, while Alaska, Nevada, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27,618 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Donald
The name Donald has its origins in the Gaelic language and culture, dating back to medieval times. It is derived from the words "dòmhnall" or "domhnull," which loosely translate to "world ruler" or "world leader." This suggests that the name may have been associated with notions of power, authority, and leadership from its earliest usage.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Donald can be found in the ancient Irish text known as the Annals of Ulster, which mentions a "Domnall mac Áedo" in the year 681 AD. This reference indicates that the name was in use among the Gaelic peoples of Ireland and Scotland during the 7th century.
In Scottish history, the name Donald gained prominence with the reign of King Donald II, who ruled as the King of Scots from 889 to 900 AD. He was known for his fierce resistance against the Viking invasions and is remembered as a brave and formidable leader.
During the Middle Ages, the name Donald was particularly popular among Scottish clans and nobility. Notable figures from this period include Donald, Lord of the Isles (1336–1423), who was a powerful Scottish magnate and chief of Clan Donald, and Donald Balloch (c. 1430–1475), a Scottish chief of Clan Donald who played a significant role in the Wars of the Roses.
In later centuries, the name Donald continued to be used across various parts of the British Isles and beyond. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Donald Mackay (1591–1649), a Scottish general who fought for the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War and rose to the rank of Field Marshal.
Another notable figure was Donald Cameron of Lochiel (1695–1748), a Scottish chief of Clan Cameron who played a prominent role in the Jacobite risings of the 18th century, supporting the claims of the House of Stuart to the British throne.
Moving into the modern era, Donald Bradman (1908–2001), an Australian cricketer widely regarded as the greatest batsman of all time, is among the most celebrated individuals to bear the name Donald.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have carried the name Donald, reflecting its enduring presence and significance across various cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Donald
People
Donald + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Donald 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
Donald: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Donald?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 721,719 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Donald 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 475 US residents.
Is Donald a common name?
We classify Donald as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,419,980 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Donald most popular?
The single biggest year for Donald was 1934, when 30,517 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Donald is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Donald in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 715,630 people with the name Donald, or 236.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #48 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 Donald 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 Donald?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donald appears almost entirely male. Of the 715,624 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Donald?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donald is White at 86.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.4%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Donald most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Donald in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.4% (618,293 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 Donald in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Donald a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Donald 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 Donald still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Donald 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 Donald 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 are named Donald?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.