Daniel — #16 US boys' name

What the Data Says About Daniel

The Social Security Administration has registered 1,974,589 babies named Daniel between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Daniel currently holds the #16 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1985, when 38,564 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Daniel performed strongest in the 1980s, accumulating 345,559 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Daniel shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in California, which accounts for 261,777 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by New York and Texas. In total, SSA state-level files list Daniel in 51 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Daniel in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 1,974,589 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.