Donal

Where Donal comes from

Donal hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1909
    First appearance
    #1,440 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1931
    Peak, #596
    97 babies named Donal — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1943
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,088.
  4. 1958
    Donal Gibson born
    American actor
  5. 1966
    Donal Logue born
    Canadian actor
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Donal Logue · Canadian actor, born 1966
  • Donal Gibson · American actor, born 1958
  • Donal Bisht · actor, born 1994
  • Donal McKeown · North Irish Roman Catholic bishop, born 1950
  • Donal Murray · Irish bishop, 1940–2024

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.