Dale

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Htoo in MM Myanmar (Burma), SE Sweden, MY Malaysia, Duy in VN Vietnam, เดื in TH Thailand and Del in ES Spain.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Dale is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name198K records spelled Dale23 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Philippines, Colombia

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written D'Ale, Dalè, Dalé, Dälë, Dãlë

• a separate given name75K records spelled Dale5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Dāle, Dalè, Dalė, Dalé

• Polish given name12K records spelled Dale86 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, Russia, United States, Croatia

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Croatian

  Also written Dalia, Далия, Dalija, Даля, Далія

• Indonesian given name7.2K records spelled Dale2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, Philippines, United Kingdom

  Also written Dalė

80 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Dale is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, ‘dweller in the dale’, from OE dæl; first attested Ralph de la Dale 1275 RH (Sf)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, Old English/Teutonic: a valley dweller, boy or girl.

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• ,2 Transferred use of the surname, originally a local name for someone who lived in a dale or valley. It is now fairly commonly used as a given name, especially in North America, along with other monosyllabic surnames of topographical origin (see for example pDell and pHale).

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, A valley, often in an otherwise hilly area.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Romanian, subst., dialectal jele. 1. Jalea, sculptorul. 2. Jedu, G., dobr. (RI XI 204); Jdliu (ib. 208). 3. Jele pren. (Br 44) ; Jelea, act., Bucuresti. 4. Jelic, Ienachi (AO X 382). 5. Jelie, olt. Pentru formele 2-4 cf. si sl. U4' EAHMHP si blg. Meabo (Weig).

  as a name·Dictionar Onomastic Rominesc

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 145 years between 1881–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Dale Carnegieb. 1888USAmerican writer and lecturer (1888-1955)
• Buddy Bakerb. 1918USnot in their usual nameAmerican composer, big band arranger, orchestra leader (1918-2002)
• Dale Robertsonb. 1923USAmerican actor (1923-2013)
• Sandy Dennisb. 1937USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (1937–1992)
• Dale T. Mortensenb. 1939USAmerican economist (1939–2014)
• Dairu Chifūrib. 1941USnot in their usual nameAmerican glass sculptor (born 1941)
• Dale Dyeb. 1944USAmerican actor, presenter, and businessman
• Greg Bearb. 1951USnot in their usual nameAmerican writer best known for science fiction (1951–2022)
• Mike Huckabeeb. 1955USnot in their usual nameGovernor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007
• Dale Ellisb. 1960USAmerican basketball player (born 1960)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,109 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Dale?

We estimate roughly 181 thousand people bear Dale (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.

In which country does Dale have the most bearers?

Dale is most frequently recorded in Vietnam, where it is most often spelled duy.

How common is Dale compared with other names?

In Vietnam, Dale is the 18th most common given name of 72,115 given names recorded there.

Is Dale a male or female name?

Dale is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Dale mean?

Recorded meaning: Person who lives in a valley; from Middle English dale, ultimately Old English or reinforced by Old Norse.