Donovan

Where Donovan comes from

From Irish Ó Donndubháin (“descendant of (a person named) brown & black”), from donn (“brown”) and dubh (“black”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Donovan
  • 3 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1900
    First appearance
    #968 among boys, 8 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1946
    Donovan born
    Scottish musician
  3. 1967
    Donovan Bailey born
    Canadian athlete, Olympic medalist
  4. 2003
    Peak, #176
    2,211 babies named Donovan — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2017
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #323.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
Namesakes
  • Donovan · Scottish musician, born 1946
  • Donovan Bailey · Canadian athlete, Olympic medalist, born 1967
  • Donovan Ricketts · Jamaican association football player, born 1977
  • Donovan Scott · American actor, born 1947
  • Donovan Dijak · American professional wrestler, born 1987

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.