Donovan
Derivative of the Irish surname Donovan, meaning "dark brown" or "brown-haired man".
Name Census estimates that about 57,551 living Americans carry the first name Donovan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Donovan today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Donovan births was 2003 (2,219 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Donovan. 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 Donovan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Donovan is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 220 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
58K
~ 1 in 5,956 Americans
Peak year
2003
2,219 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#504
Tracked since 1900
Census
Donovan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 49,792 people with the first name Donovan, which placed it at #903 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
#903
National first-name rank
People counted
50K
49,792 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Donovan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donovan is White at 43.1%. The next largest groups are Black (26.7%) and Hispanic (16.3%). 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 Donovan 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 Donovan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.1% · 21,483
- Black or African American26.7% · 13,275
- Hispanic or Latino16.3% · 8,115
- Two or more races9.4% · 4,667
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 1,351
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 901
Gender
Gender distribution for Donovan
Out of the 61,290 babies given the name Donovan 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.
Donovan as a male name
- Ranked #504 in 2024
- 603 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (2,211 births)
Donovan as a female name
- Ranked #16,340 in 2018
- 5 female births in 2018
- Peak: 2004 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donovan appears almost entirely male. Of the 49,795 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Donovan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Donovan from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 19,388 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
Donovan 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 Donovan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Donovans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Donovan, while Wyoming, Vermont, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,114 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Donovan
The name Donovan has its origins in the Irish language, where it is derived from the Gaelic words "donn" meaning "brown" and "aven" meaning "river" or "valley." The name is thought to have emerged during the medieval period in Ireland, referring to someone who lived near a brown river or in a brown valley.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Donovan can be found in the Irish Annals, which mention a Donovan O'Brien who was the King of Thomond in the 12th century. This suggests that the name was already in use as a given name among the Irish nobility during that time.
In the 13th century, the name appears in the form "Donnubhan" in the Annals of Loch Cé, referring to a member of the O'Donnubhain clan. This clan was based in County Cork, and the name's association with this region further reinforces its Irish origins.
One of the most famous historical figures to bear the name Donovan was Donovan O'Malley (c. 1460-1536), a chieftain of the O'Malley clan in County Mayo, Ireland. He was known for his naval exploits and his leadership during the Tudor conquest of Ireland.
In the 16th century, the name Donovan appears in the English translation of the Irish Annals, where it is used to refer to members of the O'Donovan clan, a prominent Gaelic family in County Cork.
Another notable Donovan was Donovan Leitch (1946-2012), a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist who was a leading figure in the British folk and psychedelic rock movements of the 1960s. He was known for his hits such as "Mellow Yellow" and "Sunshine Superman."
Other historical figures with the name Donovan include Donovan Wylie (born 1971), a Northern Irish photographer and artist known for his work documenting the landscape and architecture of Northern Ireland; Donovan Reid (born 1957), a Canadian actor and voice artist; and Donovan Ricketts (born 1977), a Jamaican former professional soccer goalkeeper.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Donovan
People
Donovan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Donovan 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
Donovan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Donovan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 57,551 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Donovan 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 5,956 US residents.
Is Donovan a common name?
We classify Donovan as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 61,290 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Donovan most popular?
The single biggest year for Donovan was 2003, when 2,219 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Donovan is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Donovan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 49,792 people with the name Donovan, or 16.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #903 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 Donovan 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 Donovan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donovan appears almost entirely male. Of the 49,795 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Donovan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donovan is White at 43.1%. The next largest groups are Black (26.7%) and Hispanic (16.3%). 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 Donovan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Donovan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.1% (21,483 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 Donovan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Donovan a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Donovan 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 Donovan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Donovan 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 Donovan 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 the name Donovan?
Want to know how many Americans are named Donovan? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.