Danny

As an independently given name, Danny dates back to 1901 on the male naming charts in America. The name was given only infrequently back then, but by the 1920s, it was clearly showing some upwards momentum. The high-point of Danny’s career was no doubt during the 1940s, 50s and 60s – making Danny a distinctly “mid-century” choice. It reminds us of Danny Zuko from the 1950s-inspired musical “Grease”. Danny was consistently a Top 50 choice for little boys in the 1950s in particular. The name finally fell off the Top 100 list of most-favored boy names in 1976 and has pretty much been showing a decline year-over-year since then. Danny is now a relatively moderate name. His big brother Daniel, however, is a huge favorite in the United States (the 8th most popular boy’s name in 2010). It’s more typical of Americans to use short forms as full given names, so you generally won’t find “Danny” on the ranks in other countries. We prefer the full traditional name over pet forms; it just allows your child more flexibility when he’s an adult and doesn’t want to sound so cute and youthful with just Danny (it’s like Tommy, Johnny, Jimmy or Timmy). Although we will say this: Danny does sound a little more grown-up compared to these other examples. It also harkens us to the famous Celtic folk song “Danny Boy”, which gives this name a lot more Irish flavor than simply Daniel.