Donnald
Masculine name of Scottish origin meaning "great chief" or "world ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 277 living Americans carry the first name Donnald. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Donnald today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Donnald births was 1954 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Donnald. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Donnald is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Donnalds were born before 1968.
People living today
277
~ 1 in 1,237,380 Americans
Peak year
1954
20 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
1981 SSA rank
#5,083
Tracked since 1929
Census
Donnald in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 259 people with the first name Donnald, which placed it at #32,463 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
#32,463
National first-name rank
People counted
259
259 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Donnald
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donnald is White at 86.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.9%). 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 Donnald 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 Donnald at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.1% · 223
- Black or African American8.1% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 4
- Two or more races1.5% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Popularity
Donnald: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Donnald from the 1920s through to the 1980s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 157 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Donnald 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 Donnald during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Donnalds live
Origin
Meaning and history of Donnald
The name Donnald is thought to have originated from the Old English language, which was spoken by the Anglo-Saxons in what is now England and parts of southern Scotland. It is believed to have emerged sometime around the 7th century CE. The name is derived from the Old English words "dunn" meaning "brown" or "dark" and "ald" meaning "old" or "venerable."
One of the earliest known historical references to the name Donnald can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals that recorded important events in early medieval England. The entry for the year 685 CE mentions a man named Donnald who was a thegn (a nobleman or attendant) in the court of King Ine of Wessex.
In the 9th century, a monk named Donnald is recorded as having been a member of the monastic community at Lindisfarne, an island off the coast of Northumbria. He is believed to have been involved in the production of the Lindisfarne Gospels, an illuminated manuscript that is one of the finest examples of Insular art from the medieval period.
Another notable figure named Donnald was a Scottish nobleman who lived in the 12th century. He was a vassal of King David I of Scotland and held lands in the region of Galloway. Donnald is mentioned in several contemporary charters and legal documents from that time.
In the 13th century, a Donnald MacIain was recorded as the chief of the Clan MacIain, a branch of the larger Clan Donald in the Scottish Highlands. He was involved in various conflicts and power struggles with other clans and is said to have led his clan in battles against their rivals.
During the late medieval period, a man named Donnald of Wyntoun was a Scottish chronicler and poet who lived in the early 15th century. He is best known for his historical work "The Original Chronicle of Scotland," which covers events from the mythical origins of the Scottish people up until his own time.
These are just a few examples of historical figures who bore the name Donnald. While the name has its roots in the Anglo-Saxon and medieval Scottish traditions, it has since become rare and is not widely used in modern times.
People
Donnald + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Donnald 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
Donnald: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Donnald?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 277 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Donnald 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 1,237,380 US residents.
Is Donnald a common name?
We classify Donnald as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 386 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Donnald most popular?
The single biggest year for Donnald was 1954, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Donnald is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Donnald in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 259 people with the name Donnald, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,463 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 Donnald 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 Donnald?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donnald appears almost entirely male. Of the 256 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Donnald?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donnald is White at 86.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.9%). 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 Donnald most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Donnald in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.1% (223 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 Donnald in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Donnald a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Donnald 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 Donnald still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Donnald 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 Donnald 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 share the name Donnald?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.