Dawn
About Dawn
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.
Pronounced DAWN.
As of October 2026, Dawn ranked #2174 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #14 in 1971, Nameberry popularity #524.
Editor's take: The name Dawn is a girl's name of English origin meaning "dawn, sunrise".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #2,073 | 94 | 52.6 |
| 2015 | #1,999 | 99 | 55.5 |
| 2016 | #2,252 | 85 | 48 |
| 2017 | #1,944 | 103 | 59.7 |
| 2018 | #1,969 | 100 | 58.8 |
| 2019 | #2,159 | 86 | 51.2 |
| 2020 | #2,174 | 83 | 51.3 |
| 2021 | #2,010 | 96 | 58.5 |
| 2022 | #1,964 | 100 | 61 |
| 2023 | #2,338 | 78 | 48.6 |
| 2024 | #1,850 | 108 | 66.7 |
| 2025 | #2,174 | 85 | 52.9 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Dawn.
- Harmony
- Roxy
- Kiki
- Trixie
- Melody
- Deona
- Heather
- Ebony
- Katniss
- Robin
- India
- Scarlet
- Amber
- Liberty
- Misty
- Roxanne
- Paris
- Emerald
- Serenity
- Crystal
Dawn on lists
Famous Dawns
- Dawn Michelle Staley
American basketball player and coach
- Dawn Elberta Wells
American actress
- Dawn Burrell
American Olympic long jumper
- Dawn Roma French
English actress, writer, and comedienne
- Dawn O'Porter
British television presenter and writer
- Dawn Evelyeen Paris
birth name of Anne Shirley, American actress
- Dawn Lyn
American actress
- Dawn Fraser
Australian Olympic swimmer
- Dawn Joanne Langstroth
Canadian singer,songwriter
- Dawn Upshaw
American soprano
- Dawn Alice Lake
Australian actress/comedienne
- Dawn Marie (Psaltis)
American pro wrestler
- Dawn Alexis Buth
American tennis player
- Dawn Penn
Jamaican reggae singer
- Dawn Powell
American novelist
- Dawn Primarolo
English MP
- Dawn Petula Butler
English MP
- Dawn Angeliqué Richard
American singer of group Danity Kane
- Dawn Sherrese Robinson
American singer of group En Vogue
- Dawn Silva
American funk singer
- Dawn Leslie Steel
American film producer; first woman to head a major studio
- Dawn Therese Brancheau
American animal trainer who was killed by an orca at SeaWorld
- Carolyn Dawn Johnson
Canadian country music singer
- E’Dawn
stage name of Kim Hyojong; rapper, dancer, and member of the South Korean boy band Pentagon
Dawn in pop culture
- Dawn Buckets
teenaged character in Disney XD's "Kirby Buckets"
- Dawn Harper
10,year,old character on TV's "Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn"
- Dawn Summers
character on UPN's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
- Dawn Roxanna Swann
character on British soap "EastEnders"
- Dawn Woods
character on British soap "Emmerdale"
- Dawn Longchamp
main character in V.C. Andrews' "Dawn"
- Dawn
a main character in video games Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum
- Prairie Dawn
character on TV's "Sesame Street"
- Dawn Read Schafer
character in "The Babysitters Club" series and its spin,off "California Diaries"
- Dawn
character in comic books by Joseph Michael Linsner
- "Horizon Zero Dawn"
video game
- "Alien Dawn
" an American,Canadian science fiction/comedy television series which aired on Nicktoons
- "Dawn (Go Away)
" song by The Four Seasons
- Tony Orlando and Dawn
American pop group
- "Dawn of the Dead
" movie
- "Breaking Dawn
" installment in the "Twilight" series
- Dawn
character in the musical "Waitress"
- Dawn Bellwether
Assistant Mayor sheep in Disney's "Zootopia"
- Dawn
character in the 2019 film "Hustlers"
- "Until Dawn"
2015 video game and 2025 film
- Dawn Rodgers
character from R.L. Stine's "Fear Street: The Prom Queen"