Donald

Scottish

"proud chief"

Donald Origin and Meaning

The name Donald is a boy's name of Scottish origin meaning "proud chief".

Donald has been used for centuries in Scotland, where the Macdonald clan is one of the most ancient and where there have been six early Scottish kings by that name. Donald was a Top 20 name throughout most of the early twentieth century.

But first there was the quacking Donald Duck, introduced in 1934, to affect its image, and then there was The Donald Trump, leaving it drained of much baby appeal. Trump's surprising run to the presidency didn't save Donald's decline on the baby name charts; it fell 47 spots between 2015 and 2016, from 441 to 488, and is now a less popular name than it's been since records have been kept.

Aside from Donald Sutherland, most contemporary real and fictive Donalds go by nicknames--as in Donny Osmond, Donnie Wahlberg, Don Rickles and Don Draper. More promising and more authentically Celtic sounding is Donal, which is quite commonly used in Ireland, or surname cousins Donnelly or Donovan.

Donald Rank in US Top 1000

# 657 in the US

Donald Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 1279 on Nameberry

Donald Popularity

• 657 US 2023
• 1279 Nameberry 2024

20 Names Similar to Donald

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

• Donal
• Bernie
• Deepak
• Shulamith
• Aide
• Dorthey
• Narah
• Diago
• Duffy
• Elleanor
• Quincey
• Alexus
• Biff
• Allifair
• Raife
• Donny
• Gordan
• Madoc
• Marketa
• Benni

Famous People Named Donald

• Donald I III, Kings of Scots
• Donald Henry Rumsfeld 13th and 21st U.S. Secretary of Defense
• Donald Franciszek Tusk former Prime Minister of Poland; President of the European Council
• Donald Adeosun Faison American actor
• Donald McNichol Sutherland American actor; father of actor Keifer Sutherland
• Donald Henry Pleasence English actor
• Donald Edmond "Donnie" Wahlberg American actor
• Isaac Donald "Don" Everly American singer,songwriter of The Everly Brothers
• Donald Driver American NFL football player
• Donald Mckinley Glover American actor
• Donald "Duck" Dunn American bass guitarist
• Donald Frank "Don" Cheadle American actor
• Donald Eugene "Don" Gibson American country music songwriter
• Donald Cargill Scottish Covenanter preacher
• Donald A. Glaser winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Donald J. Cram winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Donald Marland Hewlett English actor
• Donald Hawkins American NFL football player
• Donald George Bradman Australian cricketer
• Donald James Yarmy birth name of Don Adams, American actor
• Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho American pop singer
• Donald Clark "Don" Kirshner American music publisher and producer
• Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth American animator and director
• Donald Orlando "Duck" Bailey American jazz drummer
• Donald Maynard Brashear American,Canadian ice hockey player
• Donald Zackary "Zack" Greinke American baseball pitcher
• Donald Cortez "Don" Cornelius American TV host
• George William "Donald" Crisp Anglo,American actor
• Donald Campbell Dewar 1st Minister of Scotland
• Donald Allan "Don" Dunstan 35th Premier of South Australia
• Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond American singer and actor
• Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture "Donald" Byrd American jazz and R&B trumpeter
• Donald Tsang (Yam kuen), 2nd Chief Executive of Hong Kong
• Donald John Trump 45th U.S. president
• Donald Sterling American businessman, and former basketball team owner
• Donald James Matthew Blakeslee American WWII flying ace
• Donald Ervin Knuth American computer scientist
• Donald John Trump Jr son of President Donald Trump
• Kriss Donald (b. 1988) 15 year old white Scottish boy who was kidnapped and murdered because he was white in 2004

Donald in Pop Culture

• Donald Duck Disney character
• Donald "Don" Draper main character on TV's "Mad Men"
• Donald "Dock" O'Kelly also known as Father Daniel Flynn, character in film "Bad Times at the El Royale"
• Detective Donald "Don" Flack Jr. character on TV's "CSI: New York"
• Donald "Ducky" Mallard character on TV's "NCIS"
• Donald Ronald "Donny" Douglas character on TV's "Frasier"
• Donald Capuchin monkey in movie "Zookeeper"
• Donald "Donnie" Stevens character on TV's "Even Stevens"
• Donald "Don" Eppes main character on TV's "Numb3rs"
• Donald Ressler character on TV's "The Blacklist"
• McDonald's restaurant chain
• Donald Davenport character on TV's "Lab Rats"
• Donald Pierce character in "X,Men"
• Donald one of the main four characters from Platoon of Power Squadron
• Donald Leslie "Don" Orville Police officer on TV show "3rd Rock from the Sun"
• Captain Donald "Don" Cragen character on TV shows "Law and Order" and "Law and Order: SVU"