MEANING & HISTORY
What does Dana mean?
Dana has several independent naming routes. In English it is a surname transferred into personal-name use; another explanation treats it as a form related to Dan or Daniel.
In that second route, Daniel belongs to the Hebrew God is my judge name family. The surname has its own disputed history. The shared spelling cannot establish one universal translation or prove that an individual Dana was named from Daniel.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Dawnay, or else an altered form of Dan or Daniel.
A unisex given name transferred from the surname, originally given in honor of Richard Henry Dana Jr.
EnglishEtymology & source
Transliterations from various languages.
A female given name,
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Dana
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Dana Yzabel Divinagracia
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
1
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
1
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Dana Yzabel Divinagracia
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Dana in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Dana
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Ana♀Grace or favour
- Dan♂He judged; also a familiar form of Daniel
- Dani♂♀Short form of Daniel or Daniela
- Dara♂♀Irish, Persian and Slavic name traditions
- Diana♀Name of the Roman goddess, related to divine
- Jana♀God is gracious; Czech John-family form
- Nana♀Cebuano familiar form of Ana or Belina; Japanese use also recorded
- Dado♂Short form of Eduardo or Croatian Da- names
What rhymes with Dana?
Matches share a dictionary-supplied rhyme key in the stated language. Check the recorded reading; another language or accent can change the rhyme.
Explore Dana further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q1559603 — Dana (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Dana Yzabel Divinagracia (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q1559603 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Dana (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary: Dana (opens in a new tab)
Name formation and linguistic history; consulted existing imported etymology.