Donny
Donny was given to 28 boys in 2025, #3,871 among boys’ names; 12,927 Americans have been recorded with it since 1927 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,100 Americans named Donny and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (78% of everyone recorded); the median is 53 years old and half are between 44 and 66.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Donny by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Donny mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Donny is “a diminutive of the male given names Don, Donald, Donovan, and Adonis.”
Diminutive forms with -y.
/ˈdɒni/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Donny?
#3,871 among boys’ names, 2025
Donny fell from #2,983 in 2015 to #3,871 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 20.3 to 16.4 per million.
432 babies in 1977, the peak
Donny peaked in 1977, when 432 babies were given it (426 boys, #378 among boys’ names). The 28 births of 2025 are 6% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 28 | #3,871 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 30 | #3,716 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 27 | #4,033 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 34 | #3,425 | 0.02 |
| 2021 | 28 | #3,834 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 28 | #3,744 | 0.02 |
| 2019 | 30 | #3,652 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 26 | #4,017 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 28 | #3,797 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 36 | #3,175 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (99)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 39 | #2,983 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 42 | #2,818 | 0.02 |
| 2013 | 42 | #2,777 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 39 | #2,968 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 35 | #3,184 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 35 | #3,190 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 29 | #3,656 | 0.01 |
| 2008 | 59 | #2,243 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 61 | #2,194 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 58 | #2,208 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 49 | #2,374 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 56 | #2,103 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 49 | #2,210 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 69 | #1,692 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 72 | #1,630 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 74 | #1,585 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 68 | #1,592 | 0.04 |
| 1998 | 53 | #1,850 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 40 | #2,176 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 57 | #1,673 | 0.03 |
| 1995 | 59 | #1,573 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 57 | #1,611 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 70 | #1,380 | 0.04 |
| 1992 | 77 | #1,286 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 90 | #1,158 | 0.04 |
| 1990 | 115 | #978 | 0.06 |
| 1989 | 98 | #1,043 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 100 | #963 | 0.05 |
| 1987 | 105 | #921 | 0.06 |
| 1986 | 102 | #904 | 0.06 |
| 1985 | 113 | #845 | 0.06 |
| 1984 | 132 | #753 | 0.07 |
| 1983 | 146 | #709 | 0.08 |
| 1982 | 202 | #602 | 0.11 |
| 1981 | 230 | #565 | 0.13 |
| 1980 | 257 | #536 | 0.14 |
| 1979 | 259 | #526 | 0.15 |
| 1978 | 303 | #460 | 0.18 |
| 1977 | 426 | #378 | 0.26 |
| 1976 | 413 | #378 | 0.26 |
| 1975 | 252 | #503 | 0.16 |
| 1974 | 231 | #520 | 0.15 |
| 1973 | 269 | #479 | 0.17 |
| 1972 | 237 | #512 | 0.15 |
| 1971 | 222 | #536 | 0.13 |
| 1970 | 150 | #668 | 0.08 |
| 1969 | 165 | #610 | 0.09 |
| 1968 | 177 | #570 | 0.10 |
| 1967 | 191 | #540 | 0.11 |
| 1966 | 196 | #548 | 0.11 |
| 1965 | 181 | #569 | 0.10 |
| 1964 | 286 | #467 | 0.14 |
| 1963 | 271 | #486 | 0.13 |
| 1962 | 299 | #462 | 0.14 |
| 1961 | 312 | #456 | 0.15 |
| 1960 | 358 | #420 | 0.17 |
| 1959 | 349 | #428 | 0.16 |
| 1958 | 284 | #466 | 0.13 |
| 1957 | 273 | #466 | 0.13 |
| 1956 | 224 | #504 | 0.11 |
| 1955 | 279 | #445 | 0.14 |
| 1954 | 280 | #429 | 0.14 |
| 1953 | 249 | #452 | 0.13 |
| 1952 | 237 | #457 | 0.12 |
| 1951 | 222 | #454 | 0.12 |
| 1950 | 211 | #453 | 0.12 |
| 1949 | 239 | #432 | 0.13 |
| 1948 | 216 | #452 | 0.12 |
| 1947 | 192 | #484 | 0.10 |
| 1946 | 165 | #504 | 0.10 |
| 1945 | 112 | #572 | 0.08 |
| 1944 | 130 | #532 | 0.10 |
| 1943 | 111 | #600 | 0.08 |
| 1942 | 95 | #663 | 0.07 |
| 1941 | 79 | #691 | 0.06 |
| 1940 | 74 | #703 | 0.06 |
| 1939 | 68 | #727 | 0.06 |
| 1938 | 63 | #771 | 0.06 |
| 1937 | 49 | #882 | 0.05 |
| 1936 | 38 | #1,032 | 0.04 |
| 1935 | 37 | #1,062 | 0.04 |
| 1934 | 36 | #1,105 | 0.03 |
| 1933 | 28 | #1,256 | 0.03 |
| 1932 | 23 | #1,480 | 0.02 |
| 1931 | 18 | #1,717 | 0.02 |
| 1930 | 16 | #1,910 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 6 | #3,660 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 5 | #4,299 | under 0.01 |
| 1927 | 7 | #3,545 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Donny a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Donny has been given almost only to boys: 40 girls in 99 years of records.
Girls and boys named Donny: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Donny, and how old are they?
10,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 78% of the 12,927 Americans ever recorded as Donny. The median Donny alive today is 53 years old; half are between 44 and 66.
The 2020 Census counted 10,205 people named Donny (124 women and girls, 10,081 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 10,632 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 282 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 3,350 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 3,520 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,660 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 831 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 415 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Donny born?
The states with the most babies named Donny are Texas, California and Georgia, with 41% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 2,026 | not ranked | 2.3× |
| California | 1,057 | #2,564 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 652 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| Tennessee | 621 | not ranked | 2.2× |
| Alabama | 565 | not ranked | 2.3× |
| Arkansas | 433 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| North Carolina | 395 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Oklahoma | 350 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| Louisiana | 347 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Mississippi | 317 | not ranked | 1.8× |
Where Donny is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Donny is most over-represented in Arkansas: since 1927 it was given 3.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Donny with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 82,026 babies since 1880, Donny is the second most given (16% of them). In 2025 it was given to 28 of their 117 babies (24%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Donny
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Donny and names like it
- Compare Donny and DonnieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sDonny peaked in 1977.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Donny since 1910.
- The top names of 1977The year the most babies were named Donny.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Donny alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with DMost given first.