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Donny

#3,871 in 2025Boys' name

Diminutive of Donald

Donny has been given to 12,927 babies in the U.S. since 1927. In 2025 it ranked #3,871 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1977, with 426 recorded.

Babies named Donny, 2025

1 in 118,000

Donny over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Donny: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Donald

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Donny means

Donny is a diminutive of Donald.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Donny → Donald. The family’s meaning is “prince / chief of the world”, recorded in English with the source elements Dubnowalos.

Origin, language, and formation

Donny is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Donald, Don, Donovan and Adonis.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Donny is pronounced /ˈdɒni/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 12,887 boys were recorded with the name Donny between 1927 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 426 in 1977; its best national rank was #378 in 1976.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,744 in 2020 to #3,871 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,983 in 2015 to #3,871 in 2025.

In the United States, 40 girls were recorded with the name Donny between 1957 and 1981. Its highest annual count was 7 in 1957; its best national rank was #5,032 in 1957.

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 Donny?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 118,000
28 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 61,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#3,871
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
82,069 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Donny 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 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 82,069 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Donny. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Donnys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Donny was born before 1967 — so the typical Donny is around 58 today.

Median birth year
1967
About 58 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
21.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
8.0%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
11,080
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 21.4% of all recorded uses (2,762).

Is Donny 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
−155
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−127
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−888
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.72×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
6.6%
Peak was 1977 (426)
Years since peak
48
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
12.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#378
1976

Spellings of Donny

Donny is not the most common spelling — Johnny is, with 23.3% against Donny's 0.94%.

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 Donny is used

Across 1910–2025, Donny was most concentrated in Arkansas — about 1 in 4,348 boys, against 1 in 17,519 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

023 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Arkansas1 in 4,348
  2. 2Alabama1 in 5,556
  3. 3Tennessee1 in 5,882
  4. 4Mississippi1 in 6,667
  5. 5Oklahoma1 in 6,667
  6. 6Texas1 in 6,667
  7. 7Georgia1 in 7,692
  8. 8Louisiana1 in 9,091

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. Donny has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Donny around the world

Where Donny 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
    1998–2025
    #1,538
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1979–2017
    #733
    in 2017
  • Ireland
    2021–2021
    #755
    in 2021
  • France
    1974–2020
    #4,756
    in 2020
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #3,231
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1976–2010
    #494
    in 2010

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Donny

People whose public names include Donny, 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.

Donny in other languages

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

DonDonaldDonnieDonnino

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

Donny by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#3,871
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 127
Best rank ever
#378
1976
Peak year
1977
426 that year
First recorded
1927
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
12,887
Count in 2025
28

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,032
1957
Peak year
1957
7 that year
First recorded
1957
Last recorded
1981
All-time count
40
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Donny

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

DonteDontaRonnyDennyDontaeDonnellLennyDonellSonnyDonavanLonnyDonatoSunnyDonnieDonavonMannyDontayDonalBennyJonnyKennyDonnLannyDondre

Names with a curve like Donny

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

ReggieCareyDanialMichelCornellNickyBradfordKirbyKrisRandellJoesphDewayne

Sibling names for Donny

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 Donny

Top names of 1977, Donny's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1976Boys' names starting with D