Danny
- Pronunciation
- [Da-nny]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- God Will Judge
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Danny
Danny is the English short 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). Danny has been used as a casual diminutive of Daniel in English-speaking countries since at least the 18th century, transitioning from nickname to standalone first name in 19th and 20th-century American naming.
Notable bearers include the iconic American actor Danny DeVito (Daniel Michael DeVito Jr., born 1944, the iconic American actor whose career through ABC's Taxi 1978–1983 and Romancing the Stone 1984 made him one of the foundational figures of late-20th-century American film and TV); American actor Danny Glover (born 1946, the iconic American actor of The Color Purple 1985 and Lethal Weapon 1987–1998); American TV personality Danny Thomas (1912–1991, the iconic American actor of CBS's Make Room for Daddy 1953–1965); and the iconic American actor Danny Kaye (1911–1987, the iconic Hollywood Golden Age actor).
Danny held a US top-50 boys' rank from 1942 through 1985 — over four decades of consistent American popularity, peaking around 1955 at #20 in the United States. The name has receded since but remains in steady use, currently sitting in the US top 300 boys' rank. The name's appeal is its compact warm classical-American register — two short syllables, soft consonants, instantly readable, and the in-built Daniel-biblical religious anchor. The strong Danny DeVito and Danny Kaye cultural anchors maintain the name's cultural relevance. The name reads as both classical-vintage and contemporary American. Common nicknames are scarce since Danny is itself a nickname-shape — Dan (back-end shortening, the related shorter form), Den, and the rare Anny each occasionally appear; the longer formal Daniel is sometimes used as Danny's official-document version. International forms include the broader Daniel/Dani'el family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Danny
US Popularity History (1943–2025)
Annual US births named Danny by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1954 with 9,105 boys named Danny (boy rank #42 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #628 for boys (445 US births). That's 586 places below its 1954 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 Danny Most Popular?
Average boy-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 boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Danny the strongest states are New Mexico, Nebraska, California.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | #337 | 25 |
| 2 | Nebraska | #356 | 21 |
| 3 | California | #399 | 826 |
| 4 | Kansas | #435 | 23 |
| 5 | Arkansas | #440 | 44 |
| 6 | Connecticut | #445 | 23 |
| 7 | Nevada | #448 | 32 |
| 8 | Alabama | #453 | 87 |
| 9 | Kentucky | #461 | 74 |
| 10 | Texas | #489 | 593 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan | #742 | 61 |
| 2 | Wisconsin | #740 | 17 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | #719 | 94 |
| 4 | Minnesota | #704 | 41 |
| 5 | Illinois | #697 | 131 |
| 6 | Indiana | #675 | 82 |
| 7 | Washington | #651 | 92 |
| 8 | Virginia | #642 | 99 |
| 9 | Colorado | #625 | 64 |
| 10 | Maryland | #616 | 66 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Danny in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dani | Feminine Of Daniel God Will Judge. | Female | Spanish |
| Daniel | God Is My Judge. The Biblical Prophet And Writer Of Book Of Daniel Was A Teenager When Taken To Babylon After The Destruction Of Jerusalem In 607 BC. He Survived Two Death Sentences: (A Lions' Den And A Fiery Furnace.): Frontiersman Daniel Boone. | Male | Hebrew |
Famous People Named Danny
3 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Danny.
- Danny DeVito — Movie Actor (1944)
- Danny Glover — Movie Actor (1946)
- Danny Thomas — TV Actor (1912)
Looking for names like Danny?
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 Danny to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Danny against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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