Donaldson
Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Donaldson has been given to 122 babies in the U.S. since 1915. 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 1964, with 8 recorded.
Babies named Donaldson, 1998
1 in 735,000
Donaldson over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Donaldson?
Donaldson had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1998, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 1998
- 1 in 735,000
- 5 of 3,677,189 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 382,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 1998
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 509,768 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Donaldson sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 1998 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 509,768 children born in 1998 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Donaldson. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Donaldsons were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Donaldson was born before 1939 — so the typical Donaldson is around 86 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1930s
- 23.0% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 8.2%
- Mostly a past generation
- Recorded since 1950
- 45
- People you could plausibly meet
1930s — 23.0% of all recorded uses (28).
Is Donaldson 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 1964 (8)
- Years since peak
- 61
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Steady
- 10.9% average annual change
Donaldson by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Donaldson
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Donaldson
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.