Dana

Dana is the 6,652nd most common surname in the United States, shared by 4,877 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 61,300.

By the numbers

People: 4,877
Rank: 6,652nd
How common: 1 in 61,300
Per 100,000: 1.6

Where the name comes from

Of origin. Possibly from Dawnay, or else an altered form of Dan or Daniel.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 81.5%
Hispanic or Latino 8.0%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.6%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 2.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 2.2%
Black, not Hispanic 1.9%

Notable people called Dana

James Dwight Dana (1813–1895)American mineralogist, scientist and zoologist
Richard Henry Dana (1815–1882)American author and lawyer
Simphiwe Dana (born 1980)South African singer and composer
Viola Dana (1897–1987)actress
Audrey Dana (born 1977)French actress
Dana (born 1986)South Korean singer and actress
Frances Theodora Dana (1861–1952)American botanist, naturalist and writer
Leora Dana (1923–1983)American actress

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

Surnames like Dana

Also a first name

Dana has been given to 246,842 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1971. 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.