Dawn is from the Old English dagung — "the first appearance of daylight, daybreak" — the moment of sunrise. A top-30 US baby name from 1965 to 1980, peaking at #16 in 1970. Dawn Staley (born 1970) — American basketball player and coach; head coach of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball since 2008 — three NCAA championships (2017, 2022, 2024); 2024 team finished 38-0, the first undefeated NCAA Division I women's basketball season in 14 years; AP National Coach of the Year (2014, 2020, 2024). Three-time Olympic gold medalist as a player (1996, 2000, 2004); flag bearer for the United States at the 2004 Athens Olympics opening ceremony. Dawn Wells (1938-2020) — Mary Ann Summers on CBS's Gilligan's Island (1964-1967) — among the most-recognized faces of 1960s American TV. Dawn French (born 1957) — Geraldine Granger on BBC's The Vicar of Dibley (1994-2020); co-star of French and Saunders (1987-2007); one of the most beloved British comedians. Dawn Porter — American documentary filmmaker (John Lewis: Good Trouble). Dawn Olivieri — 1923 actress.
Featured throughout American culture from the 1960s through today.
Dawn does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Dawn reduce to 6, The Nurturer. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.