How popular is the baby name Djana in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Djana.

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Popularity of the baby name Djana


Posts that mention the name Djana

Where did the baby name Dhana come from in 1964?

The character Dhana Mercier from the movie "The 7th Dawn" (1964)
Dhana Mercier from “The 7th Dawn

The name Dhana first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the mid-1960s:

  • 1966: 12 baby girls named Dhana
  • 1965: 26 baby girls named Dhana
  • 1964: 23 baby girls named Dhana [debut]
  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: unlisted

Where did it come from?

A character named Dhana (pronounced DAH-nah) from the 1964 movie The 7th Dawn.

The film is set in British Malaya during the 1950s, against the backdrop of the guerrilla war being fought between Malaysian Communists (who want an independent socialist state) and the British military (who want to protect British colonial interests).

Dhana Mercier (played by French actress Capucine), who has been living peacefully in Malaya since the end of WWII, gets caught up in the conflict unwittingly.

The 7th Dawn was based on the book The Durian Tree (1960) by Australian writer Michael Keon.

Interestingly, the name Dhana debuted the same year that the similar-looking name Djuna debuted. Which of these two names do you prefer?

Sources: The 7th Dawn – AFI, The 7th Dawn (1964) – IMDb, SSA

Interesting one-hit wonder names in the U.S. baby name data

single flower

They came, they went, and they never came back!

These baby names are one-hit wonders in the U.S. baby name data. That is, they’ve only popped up once, ever, in the entire dataset of U.S. baby names (which accounts for all names given to at least 5 U.S. babies per year since 1880).

There are thousands of one-hit wonders in the dataset, but the names below have interesting stories behind their single appearance, so these are the one-hits I’m writing specific posts about. Just click on a name to read more.

2020s

  • (none yet)

2010s

2000s

1990s

1980s

1970s

1960s

1950s

1940s

1930s

1920s

1910s

1900s

  • (none yet)

1890s

As I discover (and write about) more one-hit wonders in the data, I’ll add the names/links to this page. In the meanwhile, do you have any favorite one-hit wonder baby names?

Image: Adapted from Solitary Poppy by Andy Beecroft under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Dec. 2023]

Mystery baby names: Djuna and Djuana (Solved!)

Graph of the usage of the baby name Djuna in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Djuna

So far I’ve only posted about two mystery names, Laquita and Nerine. But there are plenty of others.

One of those others is Djuna, which was the most impressive girl-name debut in the U.S. baby name data in 1964:

  • 1966: 24 baby girls named Djuna
  • 1965: 32 baby girls named Djuna
  • 1964: 198 baby girls named Djuna [rank: 738th]
  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: unlisted

In fact, 198 was the highest debut number ever up to that point, and it remained the record-holder until Kizzy (inspired by Roots) came along with a whopping 1,115 baby girls in 1977.

And that’s not all. A bunch of similar names became more popular in 1964 as well:

1963196419651966
Djuna198*3224
Djuana1907735
Dwana17823937
Duana7291811
Dejuana241113
Dewanna13242230
Dwanna10241012
Duanna1066
Dujuana10*5
Djana9*
Duuna9*
Duwana9*
Djuan (f)7*
Dejuna6*
Duuana6*
Duwanna6*
Dywana6*
Djuanna5*
Dajuana9*
*Debut

(Djana, Duuna, Dejuna and Duuana were one-hit wonders.)

Where did these names come from?

I haven’t a clue. The very first Djuna seems to be writer Djuna Barnes (1892-1982), but I don’t think she made any headlines in the 1960s.

The name was also used in a bunch Ellery Queen novels, but that Djuna was a boy. (And the books were published in the ’40s and ’50s, mostly.)

Olympian Wilma Rudolph named her baby girl Djuana in mid-1964. This may have contributed to the surge in usage. But many (most?) of the Djunas and Djuanas I’ve seen so far were born during the first half of the year, so it can’t be the main cause.

So…I’m stumped.

Do you guys have any ideas?

UPDATE: We worked together to figure out that the answer was TV character Djuna Phrayne, who was featured on a single episode of the TV series Channing. Thank you, everyone!