Dan

Dan is the 11,686th most common surname in the United States, shared by 2,566 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 116,000.

By the numbers

People: 2,566
Rank: 11,686th
How common: 1 in 116,000
Per 100,000: 0.86

Where the name comes from

From Hebrew דָּן.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Dan described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 42.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 28.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 11.8%
Black, not Hispanic 6.5%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 5.7%
Hispanic or Latino 4.8%

Notable people called Dan

Nicușor Dan (born 1969)President of Romania since 2025
Lin Dan (born 1983)Chinese badminton player
Zhang Dan (born 1985)Chinese pair skater
Wang Dan (born 1969)Chinese protester
Fyodor Dan (1871–1947)Russian revolutionary
Guo Dan (born 1985)Chinese archer
Zhuge Dan (200–258)Cao Wei general and politician
Zhao Dan (1915–1980)Chinese actor

People named Dan with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Dan

Also a first name

Dan has been given to 107,130 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1960. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.