Skip to main content

Updated April 16, 2022

Girl name origins & meanings

  • Japanese : Great
  • American : Light and hope

Girl name variations

Boy name origins & meanings

  • Scandinavian : Day

How Popular Is The Name Day

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : from a pet form of David.
  • English : from the Middle English personal name Day(e) or Dey(e), Old English Dæi, apparently from Old English dæg ‘day’, perhaps a short form of Old English personal names such as Dægberht and Dægmund. Reaney, however, points to the Middle English word day(e), dey(e) ‘dairy maid’, ‘(female) servant’ (from Old English dǣge, cognate with Old Norse deigja ‘female servant’, ultimately from a root meaning ‘to knead’, and related to the word for dough), which he says came to be used for a servant of either sex.
  • Irish : Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Deaghaidh (see O’Dea).
  • Scottish : from an Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Daìdh, a colloquial form of David.
  • Welsh : from Dai, a pet form of the personal name Dafydd, Welsh form of David.
  • This name was brought independently from many parts of Britain to New England by many bearers from the 17th century onward. Robert Day was one of the founders of Hartford, CT, (coming from Cambridge, MA, with Thomas Hooker) in 1635.

Join the Family

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe