What Is Dan Short For?

Coming up with nicknames for a baby can be fun. As a parent, it’s often easy to overlook the possible nicknames your child may have when they start school or go to work. So rather than focusing on just the given name for your baby, try and think of some nicknames first and work backwards. It’s a useful exercise and it might spark some creative ideas!

Dan is one possible nickname that you might want to consider. It’s usually short for Daniel. It’s a name I like on a personal level, as it’s the name of my son. One of the reasons my wife and I chose this name is because it works in English and Russian; in Russian they use the name Danya as an equivalent (along with a number of others). I tend to call him Danny or Daniel though. In this article, let’s look at some middle names that might go with Dan and what the name means.

What does Dan mean?

Daniel (Dan) means ‘God is my judge’.

Where does Dan come from originally?

Traditionally Dan comes from Scandinavia via the name ‘Danir’ which is an Old Norse word for ‘Danes’. However it is also Hebrew name, named after the fifth son of Jacob in the Bible.

What middle names go with Daniel (or Dan)?

Here are some great middles names you might want to consider that go with Dan. Make sure you check how it sounds with Daniel as well, if you’re going for that as a given name. As far as names go, I find Daniel goes very well with a variety of middles names, whether they start with a vowel, soft or hard consonant.

Daniel Alexander
Daniel Arthur
Daniel Brian
Daniel Christopher
Daniel Edward
Daniel Evan
Daniel James
Daniel Jonathan
Daniel Lewis
Daniel Lawrence
Daniel Martin
Daniel Nathan
Daniel Noah
Daniel Oliver
Daniel Patrick
Daniel Seth
Daniel Robert
Daniel Stephen
Daniel William

How popular is the name Dan?

In the US at least, Dan is actually losing popularity as a name. It dropped out of the top 1000 in the year 2000 after being consistently in a high position for most of the 20^th century. It seems Danny is a more popular choice as it currently has a rank of #556 in 2021.

chart showing how popular the name Dan is in the USA (1900-2000) — Source: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

Famous Dan’s

Here is a list of some famous people who are called Dan (who may or may not have Daniel as a given name). I’ll only include those who choose to go by Dan as their first name.

Dan Ackroyd (actor) – If you’re a fan of Ghostbusters, you’ll have seen this guy in action.
Dan Carter (rugby player) – A former rugby player for the All Blacks.
Dan Castellaneta (voice actor) – You all know Homer Simpson’s voice right?
Dan Brown (author) – Author of books such as ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Angels and Demons’.
Dan Marino (American football player) – Former quarterback for the Miami Dolphins (he also appeared in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, which you may have seen if you’re a Jim Carrey fan)
Dan Quayle (politician)
Dan Rather (journalist)