Daniel
Meaning of Daniel
Daniel is a Hebrew name, Daniyyel, generally translated as “God is my judge.” It is the name of the prophet of the Book of Daniel, a young Judean carried into Babylonian exile who is remembered for his wisdom and his survival in the lions’ den, and the book that bears his name also contains his visions. The English pronunciation is DAN-yuhl, with the stress on the first syllable.
Because of that biblical figure the name has been common in Jewish and Christian communities for centuries, and it remains one of the most recognizable male names in English. Among well-known living bearers are the actor Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in all eight films, and Daniel Craig, who portrayed James Bond in five.
Daniel has appeared among the 60 most common boys’ names in the United States in every year for which federal counts exist. It peaked at No. 5 in 1985, when 38,559 boys were given the name, and it held the same rank as recently as 2007. Since then it has eased: 8,085 boys received it in 2025, when it ranked 22nd, its lowest placing since the late 1940s.
Pronunciation
American English
- Pronunced as DAN-yuhl (/ ˈdæn.jəl /)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Daniel
| Daniel Radcliffe is an English actor best known for playing Harry Potter in all eight films from 2001 to 2011. |
| Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor best known for portraying James Bond in five films. |
| American frontiersman Daniel Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap in 1775, founded Boonesborough, and opened Kentucky to hundreds of thousands of settlers. |
| Sir Daniel Day-Lewis is an English actor widely considered one of the greatest, winner of three Academy Awards and knighted in 2014. |
| Daniel Pearl, an American Wall Street Journal reporter covering the post September 11 war on terror, was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 while investigating alleged links between Richard Reid and al Qaeda. |
| Daniel Alfredsson is a Swedish Canadian former NHL player who spent 18 seasons mostly with the Ottawa Senators, later served as an assistant coach there, and briefly played for the Detroit Red Wings before retiring in 2014. |
| English actor Daniel Kaluuya is an Academy Award BAFTA SAG and Golden Globe winner named to Time magazine 100 most influential people in 2021. |
| Daniel Kahneman was an Israeli American psychologist whose research on judgment, decision-making, and behavioral economics challenged assumptions of human rationality and earned him the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. |
| Daniel Suárez - Daniel Suarez is a Mexican American NASCAR driver, the 2016 Xfinity Series champion and first foreign born major series winner, now racing full time in the Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing. |
| Daniel Auber - Daniel Francois Esprit Auber was a French composer who led the Paris Conservatoire. |
| Daniel Paul Tammet is an English writer and savant whose award-winning memoir Born on a Blue Day and later bestsellers Embracing the Wide Sky and Thinking in Numbers have been published in over 20 languages. |
| Daniel D. Tompkins was a former New York governor who served as the sixth vice president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. |
| Daniel Kahikina Akaka was an American educator and Democratic United States senator from Hawaii who served from 1990 to 2013. |
