Fun Facts About the Name Dansby
- 230 babies named Dansby: U.S. records list 230 babies given the name Dansby from 1880 through 2025. Even 12 girls received the name Dansby - about 1 girl for every 18 boys.
What Does the Name Dansby Mean?
Dansby is an English family name, best explained as a variant of the surname Danby, which comes from one or more English villages of that name. The place name is Old Norse in origin: Danir (genitive plural Dana), meaning "Danes," joined to býr, "farmstead, settlement." The literal sense is therefore "farmstead of the Danes" or "Danes' village."
A second explanation takes the first element as the Old Norse personal name Danr, giving "Danr's farmstead." Both readings have been proposed for Danby, and they are hard to separate, since a personal name and a people-name of this shape could lie behind the same medieval spelling. The -s- in Dansby is most likely the genitival or added -s that English surnames often picked up, as in Simms from Sim or Sanders from Sander; it is not part of the Norse elements themselves.
Dansby Name History & Origins
Place names ending in Old Norse býr are thickest in the parts of England settled by Scandinavians, above all Yorkshire and the East Midlands - Whitby, Grimsby, Derby, Selby. Danby in the North Riding of Yorkshire is one of them; it is written as Danebi in Domesday Book (1086), and the nearby Danby Wiske shares the same first element. The -e- in the middle of that early spelling points to the Old Norse genitive plural Dana, "of the Danes."
Surnames taken from such villages appear in England in the later Middle Ages, when people began to be identified by the place they came from. Danby is recorded as a Yorkshire surname; Dansby is a spelling variant of it, with an -s- inserted before the b. No English village called Dansby is known, which supports treating the name as a variant rather than as a separate place name in its own right.
Dansby is also used as a given name, though rarely. The baseball shortstop Dansby Swanson (born 1994) is a modern bearer of it as a first name.
How Popular is the Name Dansby?
Dansby has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2022. Its best rank was #2,879 in 2022.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | #12,548 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2020 | #15,678 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #4,740 | 21 | 0.0012% |
| 2024 | #5,471 | 17 | 0.0010% |
| 2023 | #3,575 | 32 | 0.0019% |
| 2022 | #2,879 | 44 | 0.0025% |
| 2021 | #3,512 | 32 | 0.0018% |
| 2020 | #5,294 | 17 | 0.0010% |
| 2019 | #3,914 | 27 | 0.0015% |
| 2018 | #9,008 | 8 | 0.0004% |
| 2017 | #8,297 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2016 | #7,250 | 11 | 0.0006% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
Explore More Lists with Name Dansby
Most Popular Boy Names That Start with D
How the Name Dansby Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You are strong in material matters, determined and stubborn. You have good business ability. You are a good worker, steady and practical, a builder who takes responsibility well. These qualities may bring you a position of authority and power. You are a doer, down-to-earth, serious-minded, reliable, and self-disciplined; have good power of concentration. You are bold, independent, inquisitive and interested in research. You know what you want and why you want it.
You are always looking for an opportunity to achieve financial and emotional security. You are basically peacemaker. You understand the law of harmony and desire to balance your life with those around you. You may feel incomplete without someone to share your love, ideals, wealth or work. You can be very sensitive and could appear a bit shy and perceptive. You have developed intuition, patience and the ability to nurture others. You can achieve the state of happiness if you are willing to accept your needs in a complimentary relationship and go to create them.
✦ Dansby's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Dansby's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.