Dakota

Place-name; Sioux

"friendly one"

Dakota Origin and Meaning

The name Dakota is a boy's name of Native American origin meaning "friendly one".

An early and still one of the most popular unisex names, also a place name and name of a Native American people in the northern Mississippi valley, which makes it a controversial baby name choice. While the popularity of Dakota is trending downward for both genders, it's one of those rare genuinely gender-neutral names that is used for nearly equal numbers of boys and girls.

Dakota Rank in US Top 1000

# 329 in the US

Dakota Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 898 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Dakota

• 329 US 2023
• 898 Nameberry 2025

20 Names Similar to Dakota

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Dakota.

• Harley
• Dallas
• Colt
• Gunner
• Drake
• Chance
• Skylar
• Cruz
• Kingston
• Kingsley
• Peyton
• Karter
• Jay
• Axl
• Aj
• Harper
• Skyler
• Jax
• Jagger
• Bentley

Famous People Named Dakota

• Dakota Avery Goyo Canadian Actor
• Dakota Bradley American country music singer
• Dakota Servold American skateboarder
• Dakota Cochrane American mixed martial artist
• Dakota Ryan Hudson American baseball player
• Rayne Dakota "Dak" Prescott American football player
• Dakota Lohan brother of actress Lindsay Lohan
• Dakota Starblanket "Cody" Wolfchild son of singer Buffy Sainte,Marie and Sheldon Wolfchild
• Dakota Castillo Smith, son of NFL player Tody Smith
• Dakota Lee Martinez son of actor A Martinez
• Dakota Paul Brinkman son of actress Melissa Gilbert
• Dakota Chapman son of bounty hunter/TV personality Leland Chapman
• Dakota Jefferson Holiday Alphin (b. 2010) son of singer Big Kenny
• William Dakota Edwards son of model/actress Angela Lindvall and William Edwards
• Dakota Song Culkin son of actor Macaulay Culkin and actress Brenda Song
• Dakota Ulissa Culkin sister of actor Macaulay Culkin