Daniel

Daniel is a traditionally masculine name with roots in Welsh, Irish, and Hebrew. Daniel means "beautiful" or "God is my judge" — Daniel is derived from Daniyyel in Hebrew; "din" means "judge" and "el" means "god."

Boy names with similar beauty-attuned meanings include Aden, Adonis, Allen, Amare, Beau, Beale, Beauchamp, Beaufort, Cosmo, Eder, Faren, Irvin, Jamal, Memphis, Shaquille, and Usain.

In the Bible, the prophet Daniel was a teenager taken to Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 BC. He survived two death sentences, a lions' den and a fiery furnace, and lived to write the Book of Daniel. Other famous Daniels include frontiersman Daniel Boone, newscaster Dan Rather, and composer Danny Elfman. Notable Daniels in Hollywood include Daniel Radcliffe, Daniel Craig, Daniel Webber, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Dae Kim, Daniel Brühl, Daniel Baldwin, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, and Daniel von Bargen.

Popularity-wise, Daniel has been in the top 15 names for boys in the U.S. every year since 1972. Talk about longevity!

Daniel in quotes:

"Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him." — Book of Daniel, 6.4

"The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'." — Dan Rather

"I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days." — Daniel Boone