Daphne

About Daphne

Daphne is a Greek name meaning laurel, with a mythological story built into its history. It is both a plant name and the name of the nymph who escapes Apollo by becoming a tree. Writer Daphne du Maurier gives it another enduring connection, this time with modern Gothic fiction.

Greek meaning and myth

The Greek word daphne means laurel. In the familiar myth, Daphne is pursued by Apollo and transformed into a laurel tree so that she can escape him. The plant and the person are therefore closely joined within the story.

The moment of transformation became a recurring subject in European art. Gian Lorenzo Bernini's sculpture Apollo and Daphne, in Rome's Galleria Borghese, captures the change as branches and leaves replace parts of Daphne's human form. It gives physical shape to the point at which escape and transformation meet.

The name's botanical association is thus more specific than a general reference to flowers or woodland. It names the laurel and carries the story through which classical mythology made that plant memorable.

Pronunciation and international forms

English Daphne is pronounced DAF-nee, with two syllables and initial stress. Dutch commonly has DAF-nuh. French Daphné uses an accent, while Dafne is familiar in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Greek Dafni, Hebrew Dafna, and Turkish Defne belong to the wider family. Their spelling changes reflect established forms in different languages. The English name's ph represents an f sound rather than a separate consonant sequence.

Daphne du Maurier

Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca appeared in 1938. Its narrator, the second Mrs de Winter, arrives at Manderley, her husband's Cornish home, and finds the memory of his first wife dominating the household.

The story builds its tension through that absence: Rebecca is dead, but the new wife repeatedly encounters the traces of her life and the expectations attached to her name. Manderley itself becomes central to the atmosphere of uncertainty and unease.

Du Maurier's authorial first name gives Daphne a literary association separate from the ancient nymph. The novel's continuing readership has kept her complete name familiar on book covers across generations.

English and American use

Daphne entered English-language given-name use toward the end of the nineteenth century. Its American series shows steady use across much of the twentieth century, followed by a more substantial recent rise.

The SSA recorded 252 girls named Daphne in 1950, 396 in 2000, and 618 in 2010. In 2025 there were 1,740, with a rank of 178, the strongest count and rank in the series.

That recent peak gives the name a growing contemporary presence while its Greek meaning and literary history remain long established.

How popular is Daphne?

In 2025, Daphne ranked #178 among girls in the United States, with 1,740 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1886; its largest annual count was 1,740 in 2025. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.