Dakota Johnson's Real Name: Dakota Mayi Johnson

Quick answer: Dakota Johnson's full name is Dakota Mayi Johnson. She was born on October 4, 1989, in Austin, Texas, and works under Dakota Johnson—the civil form of her birth name.

Real name and early life

Show-business parenting meant frequent travel to filming locations; Britannica notes she wanted to act from an early age despite parental caution.

Encyclopædia Britannica identifies her in full as Dakota Mayi Johnson; Biography.com profiles match the birth date and Hollywood lineage (Britannica; Biography.com). Johnson is the family surname; Mayi is the middle name. Her father is actor Don Johnson; her mother is Oscar-nominated actress Melanie Griffith; maternal grandmother Tippi Hedren starred for Alfred Hitchcock. She debuted as a child in Crazy in Alabama (1999), directed by then-stepfather Antonio Banderas, and after high school took a small role in David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010).

Career highlights

Supporting turns in Beastly, For Ellen, 21 Jump Street (2012), and the short-lived series Ben and Kate preceded her breakthrough as Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) and its sequels, a trilogy that grossed more than $1 billion worldwide despite mixed reviews. She diversified with Black Mass, Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash and Suspiria, The Peanut Butter Falcon, The Lost Daughter, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Persuasion, Daddio, Marvel’s Madame Web (2024), and Materialists (2025). She has sung on soundtracks (notably Our Friend) while keeping acting as the core career. Across franchise fame and indie drama, billing stayed Dakota Johnson; the documented full name is Dakota Mayi Johnson.

Critics often praised her work even when the Fifty Shades scripts drew pans, and later choices with Guadagnino and Gyllenhaal helped reframe her as more than a franchise lead.

Name notes for searchers

There is no stage surname; Mayi is sometimes omitted in casual credits. Prefer Britannica and Biography.com over fan wikis. Wikipedia is useful only as a pointer after primary citations.