Dana

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled 단아 in KR South Korea.

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 20 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◐

Dana is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Czech given name523K records spelled Dana131 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Czechia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ecuador

  Languages: Czech, Spanish, Russian

  Also written Danna, Дана, Данна, D'Anna, Dännä

• Spanish given name398K records spelled Dana58 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Argentina, United States, France, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

  Also written Daña, Dänä, D'Ana, D-Ana, D' Ana

• a separate given name104K records spelled Dana7 spellings in the group

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

  Also written Daňa, Dânâ, Dānā, Daná, Dáňa

• Hindi given name33K records spelled Dana11 spellings in the group

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

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Daña, Ďana, Dána, Dāna, Danä

• Indonesian given name19K records spelled Dana7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Malaysia, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written 'Dana, Ďąña, Daña, Ďană, Dànà

• Romanian given name17K records spelled Dana3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Romania, Italy, Spain

  Also written Dană

• Hebrew given name13K records spelled Dana5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Israel, India, Canada

  Also written דאנה, דאנא, דנא, Danah

• Turkish given name10K records spelled Dana9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Syria

  Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen

  Also written Dânâ, Dâna, Dànà, Dặnḁ, Daňa

79 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●

Dana 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 Irish, Irish pagan goddess who gave her name to the Tuatha Dé Danann.

  as a name·Irish first names

• In Spanish, alternative letter-case form of DANA

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

• In English, An American surname.

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

• Daricia, Daryca, Darycia, Darys, Brillante como el día

  as a name·25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado

• tribo de Dana, próxima de Béja, Tunisia; Dana tribe, near Béja, Tunisia

  as a name·Dicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

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) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• James Dwight Danab. 1813USAmerican mineralogist, scientist and zoologist (1813-1895)
• Dana Andrewsb. 1909USAmerican actor (1909–1992)
• Dana Iveyb. 1941USAmerican actress
• Dana Rosemary Scallonb. 1951IENorthern Irish singer and politician
• Dana Delanyb. 1956USAmerican actress
• Barbara Broccolib. 1960USnot in their usual nameAmerican film producer
• Dana Schweigerb. 1968USAmerican television presenter, entrepreneur and model
• Dana Internationalb. 1969ILIsraeli singer
• Dana Nălbarub. 1976RORomanian singer
• Aaliyahb. 1979USnot in their usual nameAmerican R&B singer (1979–2001)

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 · 1,408 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Dana?

We estimate roughly 330 thousand people bear Dana (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Dana have the most bearers?

We estimate about 172 thousand people bear Dana in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled dana.

Where is Dana most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Dana is densest in the Czechia — about 1 in 105 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Dana compared with other names?

In the United States, Dana is the 233rd most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Dana a male or female name?

Dana 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 Dana mean?

Recorded meaning: Short form used as a given name; often linked to Hebrew or Slavic roots.