Danielle
- Pronunciation
- [Dan-yel]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- God Is My Judge
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Danielle
Danielle is the French feminine form of Daniel (see separate entry on Daniel for the Hebrew Dani'el etymology meaning "God is my judge" — the biblical Old Testament prophet who survived the lions' den). The French Danielle has been used continuously across French-Catholic naming traditions for centuries.
Notable bearers include American novelist Danielle Steel (born 1947, the iconic American romance novelist whose 190+ novels have sold over 800 million copies, making her one of the bestselling fiction authors in history); American figure skater Danielle Hartsell; the iconic American actress Danielle Brisebois; and contemporary American singer Danielle Bradbery (born 1996).
Danielle held a US top-50 girls' rank from 1976 through 2000 — almost three decades of consistent American popularity, peaking around 1986 at #14 in the United States. The name has receded since but remains in steady use, currently sitting in the US top 300 girls' rank. The name's appeal is its layered Hebrew-French-Catholic pedigree combined with three flowing syllables — the in-built Daniel-biblical religious anchor, the strong Danielle Steel American romance-fiction cultural anchor, and the elegant French sophistication. Common nicknames Dani (the dominant warm short form, gender-neutral and casual), Danny, Dee, Elle (back-end shortening), and the rare Dany each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Danielle, Daniella, Daniela, and Daniella have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Daniela (Italian/Spanish/Portuguese), Daniella (Italian/Hebrew alternate), Danielle (French original), and the broader Daniel/Dani'el family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Danielle
US Popularity History (1971–2025)
Annual US births named Danielle by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1987 with 17,009 girls named Danielle (girl rank #14 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #549 for girls (550 US births). That's 535 places below its 1987 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Danielle Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Danielle the strongest states are Montana, West Virginia, New Mexico.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montana | #190 | 23 |
| 2 | West Virginia | #285 | 19 |
| 3 | New Mexico | #287 | 34 |
| 4 | Maryland | #346 | 158 |
| 5 | Nevada | #348 | 67 |
| 6 | Idaho | #355 | 35 |
| 7 | Virginia | #391 | 197 |
| 8 | California | #402 | 847 |
| 9 | Arizona | #403 | 163 |
| 10 | Missouri | #404 | 145 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisiana | #617 | 58 |
| 2 | New York | #529 | 327 |
| 3 | Alabama | #526 | 89 |
| 4 | Colorado | #518 | 102 |
| 5 | Wisconsin | #511 | 92 |
| 6 | Washington | #511 | 135 |
| 7 | Minnesota | #505 | 111 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | #484 | 226 |
| 9 | New Jersey | #483 | 161 |
| 10 | Oregon | #483 | 47 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Danielle in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Danielle?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Danielle to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Danielle against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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