Daniel

Where Daniel comes from

From Middle English Daniel, Daniell, from Ancient Greek Δᾱνῑήλ (Dānīḗl), from Hebrew דָּנִיֵּאל (daniyél, literally “God is my judge”), name borne from the prophet whose story is told in the Book of Daniel.
— Wiktionary's entry for Daniel
  • Hebrew
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1660
    Daniel Defoe born
    English trader, writer, and journalist
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #25 among boys — 643 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1968
    Daniel Craig born
    English actor
  4. 1985
    Peak, #5
    38,559 babies named Daniel — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2008
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #5.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Hebrew in regular use since the Middle Ages.
Namesakes
  • Daniel Defoe · English trader, writer, and journalist, 1660–1731
  • Daniel Craig · English actor, born 1968
  • Daniel Day-Lewis · British actor, born 1957
  • Daniel Bernoulli · Swiss mathematician and physicist, 1700–1782
  • Daniel Alves · Brazilian footballer, born 1983

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.