Domenico Cavagnari (20 July 1876, Genoa – 2 November 1966, Rome) was an Italian admiral and the Chief of Staff of the Regia Marina from 1933 until 1940.

Born to a pharmacist, he enrolled in the Accademia Navale di Livorno in 1889, at an unusually young age of 13; he graduated from it in 1895.

He participated in a Far East cruise on the armored cruiser Vettor Pisani from April to December 1903, after which he was named adjutant to the Minister of the Navy Carlo Mirabello.

As Chief of Staff, he was largely responsible for the expansion and preparation of the Italian Navy in the years before World War II.

After Italy joined the war on 10 June 1940, the Italian Navy's unpreparedness (highlighted in the indecisive engagement of Punta Stilo and on the Battle of Taranto, in which three battleships were heavily damaged by British torpedo-bombers) led to his dismissal.