A male name. Hebrew ‘The Lord is Judge’. Daniel is found in England before the Norman Conquest, but only as the name of monks or bishops. Its use as an ordinary christian name seems to have begun in the 12th C and it became common in the 13th and 14th C, giving rise to the surnames Daniel, Daniels, Dann, Dannson, Dannet (Lyford 1655 gives Dannet as a diminutive of Daniel). It was revived with other Biblical names in the 17th C and remained in general use down to the middle of the 19th C, since when it has been rare. It has been particularly common in Ireland where it is used to translate the native Domnall, and in Wales for Welsh Deiniol.

Daniel Curia Regis Rolls 1189-1215. Danyell Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379. Danyll Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379.

In Hebrew, ‘the judging God.’ Daniel of the Lion’s Den—cf. the Misit Mark of the Daniel Press at Oxford (misit angelum suum, ‘He sent His angel’)—may be said to have implanted the name in popular imagination; it has flourished in both the East and the West, and ‘in Ireland it was adopted as the equivalent to Domnall, Donacha, and other names from Don (or brown-haired), thus causing Dan to be one of the most frequent of Irish contractions’, Yonge.

The Scripture name, in Hebrew דָּנִיֵּאל, Daniyyél, which has been variously translated ‘judge of God.’ ‘God’s judge,’ one who delivers judgment in the name of the Lord; from dan-El. Hence as a nickname Dan. According to a note in the Annals of Ireland it would seem that the Irish name Domhnall (pronounced Don-all), whence O’Donnell, has sometimes been Anglicised to Daniel.

Hebrew (masculine) - God is my judge.

Dan'-e-el, judgment of God. 1. A prophet descended from the royal family of David, and carried captive to Babylon when very young, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, A. M. 3398. He was a very extraordinary prophet, favoured of God, and honoured of men beyond all his contemporaries. His prophecies are remarkably clear and explicit. 2. A son of David by Abigail. 1 Chron. iii. 1. 3. A priest who attended Ezra to Judea, A. M. 3550. Ezra viii. 2.

Meaning: my judge is God.

A Hebrew name, meaning: The Lord judgeth; my judge is God: divine judge.