Damaris
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "child of sweetness".
Name Census estimates that about 12,353 living Americans carry the first name Damaris. It is a predominantly female name (95.8% of registrations). The average person named Damaris today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Damaris births was 2006 (496 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Damaris. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Damaris with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Damaris is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 552 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 27,747 Americans
Peak year
2006
496 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2022 SSA rank
#1,435
Tracked since 1916
Census
Damaris in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,964 people with the first name Damaris, which placed it at #1,717 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
#1,717
National first-name rank
People counted
18K
17,964 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
87.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Damaris
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damaris is Hispanic at 87.3%. The next largest groups are White (6.2%) and Black (5.3%). 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 Damaris 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 Damaris at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino87.3% · 15,687
- White6.2% · 1,120
- Black or African American5.3% · 954
- Two or more races0.7% · 124
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 62
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 17
Gender
Gender distribution for Damaris
Damaris leans heavily female at 95.8% of total registrations, but 552 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Damaris as a male name
- Ranked #11,166 in 2022
- 6 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1999 (19 births)
Damaris as a female name
- Ranked #1,435 in 2024
- 154 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (483 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Damaris leans strongly female. 17,587 people counted with this name were female (97.9%), compared with 386 male bearers (2.1%).
Popularity
Damaris: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Damaris from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 3,852 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Damaris 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 Damaris during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Damaris' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Damaris, while Missouri, South Carolina, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 329 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Damaris
The name Damaris is a feminine given name of Greek origin. It is derived from the ancient Greek word "damalis," which means "young cow" or "heifer." The name likely originated in the Hellenic era, which spanned from the 8th century BCE to the 3rd century BCE.
The earliest recorded usage of the name Damaris can be found in the New Testament of the Bible. In the Book of Acts, chapter 17, verse 34, a woman named Damaris is mentioned as being among the first converts to Christianity in Athens. This reference dates back to the 1st century CE.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Damaris was Damaris Cudworth Masham, an English philosopher and theologian who lived from 1659 to 1708. She was a prominent figure in the Cambridge Platonist movement and a close friend of the philosopher John Locke.
Another notable Damaris was Damaris Howard, Countess of Suffolk, an English noblewoman who lived from 1685 to 1754. She served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne and was known for her influence in court politics during the early 18th century.
In the literary world, Damaris Masham, a character in the novel "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift, was named after the philosopher Damaris Cudworth Masham. The novel was published in 1726.
During the 19th century, Damaris Shurley Cudworth, an English writer and feminist, lived from 1830 to 1908. She was an advocate for women's rights and education and published several works on these topics.
In more recent times, Damaris Lewis, an American actress and model born in 1990, has gained recognition for her roles in television shows such as "Blackish" and "Blindspotting."
Despite its ancient origins, the name Damaris has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, but it has been used across various cultures and time periods, often associated with notable individuals in fields such as philosophy, literature, and the arts.
People
Damaris + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Damaris 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
Damaris: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Damaris?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,353 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Damaris 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 27,747 US residents.
Is Damaris a common name?
We classify Damaris as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,133 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Damaris most popular?
The single biggest year for Damaris was 2006, when 496 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Damaris is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Damaris in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,964 people with the name Damaris, or 5.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,717 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 Damaris 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 Damaris?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Damaris leans strongly female. 17,587 people counted with this name were female (97.9%), compared with 386 male bearers (2.1%). 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 Damaris?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damaris is Hispanic at 87.3%. The next largest groups are White (6.2%) and Black (5.3%). 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 Damaris most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Damaris in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.3% (15,687 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 Damaris in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Damaris a female name?
Yes, 95.8% of people registered as Damaris in the SSA data are female. 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 Damaris still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Damaris 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 Damaris 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 Damaris?
Find out how many people have the name Damaris on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.