MEANING & HISTORY
What does Donna mean?
Donna is a personal name based on Italian donna, lady or woman. Some naming traditions also interpret it as a feminine counterpart of Donald, a separate immediate route.
The Italian noun derives from older Latin status vocabulary. The name does not mean gift simply because Latin donum resembles it; that is a different word.
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.
CebuanoEtymology & source
From English Donna, from Italian donna.
a female given name from English
EnglishEtymology & source
A 19th-century invention from the Italian noun donna; also interpreted as a feminine form of Donald.
A female given name from Italian.
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 Donna
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
Donna Cruz
Filipino actress and singer
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
Wikidata
1
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Donna Cruz
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Donna 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 Donna
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
- Anna♀Grace or favour
- Don♂Short form of Donald
- Donah♀Variant of Donna; an Italian lady-word connection
- Donnie♂Affectionate form of Donald or Donna
- Hanna♀Grace; a form of Hannah
- Inna♀Russian and Ukrainian form of an early saint’s name
- Janna♀Jane-family form, associated with divine grace
- Joanna♀God is gracious
What rhymes with Donna?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Donna further
Follow the sources
- Wikidata given-name item Q1993601 — Donna (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Donna Cruz (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q1993601 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Donna (Cebuano) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — Donna (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary: Donna (opens in a new tab)
Personal-name formation and etymological relationships; imported dictionary account consulted.