Donald

What Donald means

Means “prince / chief of the world”

Name of Scottish kings and an early saint, from Scottish Gaelic Dòmhnall and reinforced by Medieval Latin Donvaldus ~ Donaldus, from Old Irish Domnall, from Proto-Celtic *Dubnowalos (“prince / chief of the world”).

Source: Wiktionary, “Donald” (revision 94538817), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Donald?

US: Falling: down from #440 in 2015. England & Wales: Falling: down from #1186 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1934, when 30,408 boys got the name (#6 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 4,324 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 15,108 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 2,455 baby boys in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in SC (0.52 per 1,000 boys), AL (0.51 per 1,000 boys), MD (0.48 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Donald is #690 in the US and #1466 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Donald were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

If you like Donald

Boys

• Kenneth#294“handsome”^*
• Allen#578Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1951, with 5,179 babies; 507 in 2025
• Shawn#681“God is gracious”^*
• Brian#339Same root as Brendan, meaning “prince, king”^*
• Marvin#699Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1928, with 4,452 babies; 385 in 2025
• Shane#635“God is gracious”^*

For a sister

• Jennifer#586Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1972, with 63,600 babies; 501 in 2025
• Bridget#724Editor’s note Down from #534 in 2015 to #724 in 2025 in the US
• Megan#887Diminutive of Margaret, meaning “pearl”^*
• Briana#661Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1994, with 5,000 babies; 431 in 2025
• Sabrina#321Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1997, with 5,816 babies; 956 in 2025
• Morgan#312Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #121 in 2015, #312 in 2025

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Irish & Celtic, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Donald’s. Rank is US 2025.