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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

DanIn Hebrew: דן · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: דָּןRomanization: dan

Dan (Hebrew: דן) is a boy's name of biblical origin. 14,945 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 225 boys and ranked #89. Its peak year was 1996, with 260 babies.

People in Israel
14,945
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
225
rank #89
Peak year
1996
260 babies
USA, 2025
78
rank #1,959

Writing and saying Dan

In Hebrew letters the name is דן, read right to left. Dan is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "dan" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • Dan (the fifth son of Jacob and Bilhah (who was Rachel's handmaid))
  • Dan (one of the Israelite tribes).
  • Dan (the region of Ancient Israel occupied by this tribe).
Traditionally taken to be from דָּן (dan, “Dan (one of the sons of Jacob in the Bible)”), whose name perhaps derived from the same root ד־ו־ן (d-w-n) as above, but modern scholars frequently view this figure as an after-the-fact eponym and connect the tribal name to other words and names, such as Denyen.

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Dan by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Dan: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Dan in English-speaking countries

Dan in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202578#1,9591960 (3,696)
United Kingdom202530#1,0802005 (54)
England and Wales202526#1,1242005 (48)
Northern Ireland20254#3442021 (10)
Ireland202515#2762012 (27)
Alberta20251#2,3932020 (7)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Dan has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Dan

How do you write Dan in Hebrew?

Dan is written דן in Hebrew (with vowel points: דָּן). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "dan".

How many people in Israel are named Dan?

14,945 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name דן: 30 women and 14,915 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Dan a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 99.8% of the people named דן are men.

What does the name Dan mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "Dan (the fifth son of Jacob and Bilhah (who was Rachel's handmaid))" Etymology: Traditionally taken to be from דָּן (dan, “Dan (one of the sons of Jacob in the Bible)”), whose name perhaps derived from the same root ד־ו־ן (d-w-n) as above, but modern scholars frequently view this figure as an after-the-fact eponym and connect the tribal name to other words and names, such as Denyen.

Is Dan used outside Israel?

The name Dan appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 78 boys were given it in 2025 (#1,959), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 30 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.