Name Awesome

Defne

#4,284 in 2025Girls' name

Laurel

Defne has been given to 659 babies in the U.S. since 1993. In 2025 it ranked #4,284 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2017, with 51 recorded.

Babies named Defne, 2025

1 in 100,000

Defne over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Defne: meaning, origin, and history

Laurel

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Defne means

Defne means “laurel”.

Origin, language, and formation

Defne is used in Turkish.

Defne comes through Ottoman Turkish دفنه and Greek δάφνη.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Turkish, Defne is pronounced [defˈne].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 659 girls were recorded with the name Defne between 1993 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 51 in 2017; its best national rank was #3,163 in 2017.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #4,923 in 2020 to #4,284 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #4,887 in 2015 to #4,284 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Defne?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 100,000
33 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 48,700
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#4,284
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
69,634 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Defne sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 69,634 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Defne. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Defnes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Defne was born before 2016 — so the typical Defne is around 9 today.

Median birth year
2016
About 9 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
48.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
94.4%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
659
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 48.0% of all recorded uses (316).

Is Defne rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+28
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+639
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+603
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.18×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
64.7%
Peak was 2017 (51)
Years since peak
8
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,163
2017

Spellings of Defne

Defne is not the most common spelling — Diane is, with 73.2% against Defne's 0.09%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Defne is used

Across 1910–2025, Defne was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 359,058 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Florida1 in —
  3. 3New Jersey1 in —
  4. 4New York1 in —
  5. 5Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Defne has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Defne around the world

Where Defne ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2003–2025
    #1,229
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2023–2023
    #856
    in 2023
  • France
    1996–2025
    #865
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2012–2024
    #3,027
    in 2024

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Defne by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#4,284
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 639
Best rank ever
#3,163
2017
Peak year
2017
51 that year
First recorded
1993
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
659
Count in 2025
33

Names similar to Defne

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

DafneDaffne

Sibling names for Defne

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Defne

Top names of 2017, Defne's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2017Girls' names starting with DTurkish Girl Names