Dacotah
Native American name meaning "friendly" or "allied".
Name Census estimates that about 106 living Americans carry the first name Dacotah. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 70.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Dacotah today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dacotah births was 1994 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dacotah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
106
~ 1 in 3,233,531 Americans
Peak year
1994
14 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2005 SSA rank
#8,449
Tracked since 1992
Census
Dacotah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 181 people with the first name Dacotah, which placed it at #40,888 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#40,888
National first-name rank
People counted
181
181 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dacotah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dacotah is White at 78.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.4%) and Black (3.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dacotah described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dacotah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.5% · 142
- Two or more races9.4% · 17
- Black or African American3.9% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.9% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Dacotah
Dacotah is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 108 total registrations, 76 (70.4%) were male and 32 (29.6%) were female.
Dacotah as a male name
- Ranked #8,449 in 2005
- 8 male births in 2005
- Peak: 1994 (14 births)
Dacotah as a female name
- Ranked #17,947 in 2009
- 5 female births in 2009
- Peak: 1999 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dacotah on both sides of the split. Of the 180 people counted with this name, 93 were male (51.7%) and 87 were female (48.3%).
Popularity
Dacotah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dacotah from the 1990s through to the 2000s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 73 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Dacotah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dacotah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dacotah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dacotahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Dacotah
The name Dacotah has its origins in the Native American Sioux language, spoken by the Dakota and Lakota tribes of the Great Plains region of North America. The name is believed to have first emerged in the 17th or 18th century, deriving from the word "Dakota," which means "friend" or "ally" in the Sioux language.
The earliest recorded use of the name Dacotah dates back to the late 18th century when it was used to refer to the Dakota people, also known as the Sioux Nation. The name gained popularity during the westward expansion of the United States in the 19th century, as settlers encountered and interacted with the Dakota tribes.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Dacotah was Dacotah, a Native American chief of the Sioux tribe who lived in the late 18th century. He was known for his leadership and played a significant role in the tribe's interactions with European settlers and explorers.
Another historical figure with the name Dacotah was Dacotah, a renowned warrior and leader of the Santee Sioux tribe in the mid-19th century. He fought against the encroachment of settlers on Sioux lands and was involved in several conflicts with the United States government.
In the late 19th century, Dacotah, a Lakota Sioux woman, gained recognition for her advocacy of Native American rights and her efforts to preserve the traditional way of life of her people. She worked tirelessly to promote education and cultural preservation among the Lakota.
During the 20th century, Dacotah, an acclaimed artist and member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, became known for her intricate beadwork and traditional Sioux art. Her works were exhibited in museums across the United States and helped to preserve and promote Native American art and culture.
Finally, Dacotah, a prominent Sioux activist and environmentalist in the late 20th century, played a key role in the struggle to protect sacred Native American lands and natural resources. He was a vocal advocate for indigenous rights and environmental justice.
While the name Dacotah has its roots in the Native American Sioux culture, it has also gained popularity among non-Native Americans in recent times, particularly those with an appreciation for Native American history and culture.
People
Dacotah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dacotah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dacotah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dacotah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 106 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dacotah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,233,531 US residents.
Is Dacotah a common name?
We classify Dacotah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 108 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dacotah most popular?
The single biggest year for Dacotah was 1994, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dacotah is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dacotah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 181 people with the name Dacotah, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,888 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dacotah in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dacotah?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dacotah on both sides of the split. Of the 180 people counted with this name, 93 were male (51.7%) and 87 were female (48.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dacotah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dacotah is White at 78.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.4%) and Black (3.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dacotah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dacotah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.5% (142 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dacotah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dacotah a male name?
Yes, 70.4% of people registered as Dacotah in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Dacotah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dacotah in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dacotah can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Dacotah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.