Dayan is a unisex given name of Hebrew origin, meaning 'judge'. It is derived from the Hebrew word 'dayan', which refers to a judge or arbitrator in Jewish law. The name gained popularity following its use by notable individuals such as Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj movement, and Dayan Cassey, a British barrister who served as a UN envoy. Dayan is often used as a shortened form of the Hebrew male given name 'Yitzchak' or 'Isaac', but it can also stand alone as a unique given name.
The name Dayan had a significant spike in popularity between 2001 and 2006, with the highest number of births recorded in 2006 at 21. However, it appears that this trend decreased afterwards, as there were only 5 births recorded in 2014 and 7 births each in 2015 and 2016. Overall, there have been a total of 199 births with the name Dayan since 1969.