The name Dawn is a boy's name of English origin meaning "dawn, sunrise".

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While Dawn feels dated for girls having had its heyday back in the seventies, could this word name make a fresh and unexpected option for boys, as a spin on the likes of Dan, Don, Shawn, Dean, and John? 
 
Some parents certainly through so in 2024, when the name reappeared in the stats for boys for the first time in thirty years. Given to six boys compared to 108 girls, five percent of all Dawns born were boys. 
 
Dawn for boys isn't an entirely novel concept, as implied above, and it has been occasionally given since the 1920s. During 60s and 70s, there were even two occasions when more than 50 boys received the name, however, due to just how popular it was for girls at the time, boys made up less than 1% of all Dawns born in the US.
 
With its nature related meaning and its associations with new beginnings and fresh starts, Dawn does hold some appeal. Time will tell if it catches on as a gender neutral word option.

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Dawn

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The name Dawn is a girl's name of English origin meaning "dawn, sunrise".

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Associated with the first light of the day, and more figuratively with new beginnings and fresh starts, Dawn's heyday came in the 1960s and 70s in the US, Canada and the UK. It had been in the charts since around the end of the First World War but really began to take off in the 1950s.
 
Derived from the Old English dagung, the name peaked at peaked in 1971 in the US, when it was given to more than 14,000 girls and sat within the Top 20. Shortly after, however, it began to decline and has since been eclipsed by other names with the same meaning, such as Aurora or Roxana, or by options with similar sentiments, like Nova or Alba. 
 
Given to 108 girls in a recent year, Dawn hasn't faded entirely from sight, and if you put aside its dated image, it could one day be a meaningful word name again.

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