Meaning and background
The story behind Dana
Dana belongs to several distinct personal-name traditions. Behind the Name records feminine forms of Daniel or Dan, Balkan short forms of names such as Bogdana and Yordana, and a Persian wise-name also used in Arabic. English Dana has a separate surname-based history whose deeper origin is uncertain. These accounts should stay separate, so the appealing wise meaning is identified as Persian rather than assigned to every Dana.
- Origin
- Personal name with Daniel/Dan, Balkan short-form, Persian wise-name, and English surname-derived traditions; the English surname origin is uncertain. Source · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4
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About Dana
Recorded as a dog’s name
Dana appears in 5 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/deɪnə/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/deɪnə/ · primary stress on syllable 1D EY1 N AH0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.