ninan.org

Donna

Girls' name · Mid-century perennial

Living in the US
~615,500 survival-weighted estimate
2025 rank
#1,962 among girls
Births in 2025
98 833,874 since 1880
Typical age
67 years, median

Donna popularity over time

Donna rank by birth year, 1880–2025Donna ranked #403 in 1880 and #1,962 in 2025. Its best rank in the period was #5, in 1959.#10#100#1,000#1,962best #5 in 195918901920195019802010
Rank among US baby names by birth year, 1880–2025. Lower is more popular; the scale is logarithmic so the top of the chart is not compressed.

1959 is the peak year for Donna, with 36,539 births. It appears in the very first year SSA covers, 1880. Across the record, 51 years put Donna in the top 100.

The 2025 position is #1,962, on 98 births. Compared with 2015, births are down 39%. It slipped 37 places against the previous year.

Babies named Donna per yearPeaks at 36,539 births in 1959.36,539 in 1959018901920195019802010
Recorded US births by year. The peak is labelled; the axis starts at zero.

How many people are named Donna?

An estimated 615,500 living Americans are called Donna. SSA has recorded 833,874 births under the name since 1880.

This is a survival-weighted estimate, not a headcount: every recorded birth year is multiplied by the chance someone born that year is still alive, using the SSA period life table. How the estimate works.

How old is the average Donna?

Median age among living Donnas: 67. Most living bearers were born in the 1950s. By the site’s era rules that makes Donna a mid-century perennial name.

Your Donna

Ages of living people named DonnaHalf of living Donnas are older than 67 and half younger.median 67020406080100
Estimated living bearers by age today. Each bar is a birth year, weighted by the chance someone born then is still alive.

Where Donna is most common

California uses the name 1.9× as often as the country as a whole.

Where Donna is used more than average1 states use the name Donna more than the national average.Alaska: not over-representedAKMaine: not over-representedMEVermont: not over-representedVTNew Hampshire: not over-representedNHWashington: not over-representedWAIdaho: not over-representedIDMontana: not over-representedMTNorth Dakota: not over-representedNDMinnesota: not over-representedMNIllinois: not over-representedILWisconsin: not over-representedWIMichigan: not over-representedMINew York: not over-representedNYOregon: not over-representedORNevada: not over-representedNVWyoming: not over-representedWYSouth Dakota: not over-representedSDIowa: not over-representedIAIndiana: not over-representedINOhio: not over-representedOHPennsylvania: not over-representedPANew Jersey: not over-representedNJConnecticut: not over-representedCTRhode Island: not over-representedRICalifornia: 1.9× the national rateCAUtah: not over-representedUTColorado: not over-representedCONebraska: not over-representedNEMissouri: not over-representedMOKentucky: not over-representedKYWest Virginia: not over-representedWVVirginia: not over-representedVAMaryland: not over-representedMDDelaware: not over-representedDEMassachusetts: not over-representedMAArizona: not over-representedAZNew Mexico: not over-representedNMKansas: not over-representedKSArkansas: not over-representedARTennessee: not over-representedTNNorth Carolina: not over-representedNCSouth Carolina: not over-representedSCDistrict of Columbia: not over-representedDCOklahoma: not over-representedOKLouisiana: not over-representedLAMississippi: not over-representedMSAlabama: not over-representedALGeorgia: not over-representedGAHawaii: not over-representedHITexas: not over-representedTXFlorida: not over-representedFL
Same as national3× or more
Location quotient, 2016–2025. Shaded states use the name more than the country does, relative to their own births. Exact figures are in the table below.
States where Donna is over-represented, 2016–2025. The location quotient compares the state's share of the name with the national share.
StateBirthsvs national rate
California 233 1.9×

Where the name Donna comes from

A 19th-century invention from the Italian noun donna; also interpreted as a feminine form of Donald.

Etymology summarised from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wiktionary entry.

Notable people named Donna

Ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them — a measure of reach, not of importance.
NameKnown forYearsEditions
Donna Strickland Canadian physicist, Nobel laurate 1959 89
Donna Summer American singer 1948–2012 78
Donna Tartt American writer 1963 60
Donna Reed American film and television actress 1921–1986 58
Donna Haraway American philosopher, scholar in the field of science and technology studies 1944 42
Donna Vekić Croatian tennis player 1996 41
Donna Karan American fashion designer 1948 37
Donna Leon American crime novelist 1942 36
Photo credits (8)

The sharpest rise. Births under this name jumped from 283 in 1914 to 483 in 1915 — 1.7 times over in a single year.

Birth records contain the rise and nothing about its cause. This site does not supply one.

People and dates from Wikidata (CC0), limited to those with an English Wikipedia article who are known by this name as their first name.

Names similar to Donna

Matched by sound and spelling inside this dataset, then ordered by total recorded births. This is not a claim about shared etymology.

Related pages

Get this data

Every number on this page is available as JSON: /api/name/donna.json. Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0).