Name Awesome

Donal

Boys' name

World + prince, chief, through Domnall

Donal has been given to 3,712 babies in the U.S. since 1909. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1930, with 98 recorded.

Babies named Donal, 2023

1 in 663,000

Donal over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Donal: meaning, origin, and history

World + prince, chief, through Domnall

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Donal means

Donal belongs to the name family reached through Donal → Domnall → *Dubnowalos. Its meaning is “world + prince, chief”.

Origin, language, and formation

Donal is used in Manx.

Donal comes through Old Irish Domnall.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Donald, Domnall and *Dubnowalos.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,707 boys were recorded with the name Donal between 1909 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 98 in 1930; its best national rank was #597 in 1931.

In the United States, 5 girls were recorded with the name Donal between 1968 and 1968. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1968; its best national rank was #7,287 in 1968.

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 Donal?

Donal had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
459,528 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Donal sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 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 459,528 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Donal. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Donals were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Donal was born before 1942 — so the typical Donal is around 83 today.

Median birth year
1942
About 83 years old
Biggest decade
1930s
21.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
4.0%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,510
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1930s — 21.5% of all recorded uses (797).

Is Donal 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1930 (98)
Years since peak
95
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#597
1931

Spellings of Donal

Donal is not the most common spelling — Donald is, with 47.5% against Donal's 0.12%.

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 Donal is used

Across 1910–2025, Donal was most concentrated in Oklahoma — about 1 in 16,667 boys, against 1 in 116,437 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

06 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Oklahoma1 in 16,667
  2. 2West Virginia1 in 20,000
  3. 3Arkansas1 in 33,333
  4. 4Tennessee1 in 50,000
  5. 5Texas1 in 50,000
  6. 6California1 in 100,000
  7. 7Indiana1 in 100,000
  8. 8Kentucky1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Donal has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Donal around the world

Where Donal 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
    1996–2024
    #5,120
    in 2024
  • Scotland
    2015–2020
    #599
    in 2020
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2025
    #314
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    1964–2025
    #509
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1946–1990
    #484
    in 1990

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Donal

People whose public names include Donal, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Donal in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Donal. Linked forms have their own page here.

Dhomhnaill

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Donal by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#597
1931
Peak year
1930
98 that year
First recorded
1909
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
3,707
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#7,287
1968
Peak year
1968
5 that year
First recorded
1968
Last recorded
1968
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Donal

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

DontaDonatoDonellDontayDontaeDonnyDonteDondreDonnaDonavonDonavinDontezRonalDonavanKunalDonnalDontrellDonnDonavenDonivanDontreDonzellDondiDonnell

Names with a curve like Donal

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Donal, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

DenzilDeaneVerlinWinfordTheadoreDaroldDeraldWillianBoyceTalmadgeNormandMaxie

Sibling names for Donal

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 Donal

Top names of 1930, Donal's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1931Boys' names starting with DManx Boy NamesManx Names