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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

DanielIn Hebrew: דניאל · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: דָּנִיֵּאלRomanization: daniyél

Daniel (Hebrew: דניאל) is a boy's name of biblical origin. 75,693 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 888 boys and ranked #19. Its peak year was 1993, with 1,945 babies.

People in Israel
75,693
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
888
rank #19
Peak year
1993
1,945 babies
USA, 2025
8,085
rank #22

Writing and saying Daniel

In Hebrew letters the name is דניאל, read right to left. Daniel 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 "daniyél" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • a male or female given name, equivalent to English Daniel or Danielle
  • Daniel (a book in the Old Testament of the Bible)
  • Daniel (the prophet whose story is told in the Book of Daniel)
From דָּן (dan, “one who judges [of]”) + ־י (-i, “me”) + אֵל (el, “God”), literally “God is my judge”.

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

Daniel 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).

Daniel: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Daniel in English-speaking countries

Daniel in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States20258,085#221985 (38,559)
United Kingdom2025956#561997 (9,801)
England and Wales2025804#621996 (10,338)
Scotland202599#431991 (872)
Northern Ireland202553#342008 (270)
Ireland2025225#142009 (842)
British Columbia202361#391985 (454)
Alberta202599#251985 (533)
Quebec202571#1021980 (643)
New South Wales2025126#641987 (1,451)

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

Related Israeli names

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

Questions about Daniel

How do you write Daniel in Hebrew?

Daniel is written דניאל in Hebrew (with vowel points: דָּנִיֵּאל). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "daniyél".

How many people in Israel are named Daniel?

75,693 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name דניאל: 13,264 women and 62,429 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 Daniel a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 82.5% of the people named דניאל are men.

What does the name Daniel mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "a male or female given name, equivalent to English Daniel or Danielle" Etymology: From דָּן (dan, “one who judges [of]”) + ־י (-i, “me”) + אֵל (el, “God”), literally “God is my judge”.

Is Daniel used outside Israel?

The name Daniel appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 8,085 boys were given it in 2025 (#22), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 956 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.