Damarys
A Latin feminine name perhaps adopted from a Greek origin, meaning "young calf".
Name Census estimates that about 516 living Americans carry the first name Damarys. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Damarys today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Damarys births was 2004 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Damarys. 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
516
~ 1 in 664,253 Americans
Peak year
2004
23 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,834
Tracked since 1963
Census
Damarys in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,215 people with the first name Damarys, which placed it at #10,798 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
#10,798
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,215 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
97.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Damarys
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damarys is Hispanic at 97.4%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Damarys 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 Damarys at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino97.4% · 1,184
- White1.6% · 19
- Black or African American0.4% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 4
- Two or more races0.2% · 3
Popularity
Damarys: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Damarys from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 176 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
Damarys 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 Damarys during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Damarys' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Damarys, while Texas, Florida, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Damarys
The name Damarys has its origins in Greek culture and language, stemming from the ancient Greek words "damao" meaning "to tame" or "to subdue" and "mare" meaning "the sea." As a result, the name Damarys is often interpreted to mean "she who calms the sea" or "tamer of the sea."
This name can be traced back to ancient Greece, where it was likely used as a descriptive name or epithet for a goddess associated with the sea or maritime activities. The earliest recorded use of the name Damarys is found in Greek mythology, where it was the name of a sea nymph who was said to have the power to control the waves and calm the turbulent seas.
While the name Damarys does not appear to have been widely used in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been documented in historical records from various parts of Europe, particularly in regions with close ties to Greek culture and maritime traditions. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Damarys of Lesbos, a Greek poet who lived in the 6th century BC and was renowned for her lyrical works celebrating the beauty of the Aegean Sea.
Over the centuries, the name Damarys has been borne by a handful of notable figures, including Damarys de Muñoz Escribano (1512-1573), a Spanish noblewoman and patron of the arts during the Renaissance period; Damarys Masham (1658-1708), an English philosopher and intellectual who was a close friend of the renowned thinker John Locke; and Damarys Valero (1913-2005), a Venezuelan painter and sculptor whose works were heavily influenced by the vibrant colors and natural landscapes of her homeland.
Two other individuals who carried the name Damarys were Damarys Chavez (1930-2022), a Cuban-American artist and educator who was known for her intricate textile designs and advocacy for the preservation of traditional Cuban art forms, and Damarys Ruiz de Pareja (1890-1963), a Peruvian writer and feminist activist who played a significant role in the women's suffrage movement in her country.
The name Damarys, with its rich historical roots and connections to the sea, has endured through the ages, carried by individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures, each leaving their unique mark on the world.
People
Damarys + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Damarys 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
Damarys: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Damarys?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 516 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Damarys 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 664,253 US residents.
Is Damarys a common name?
We classify Damarys as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 537 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Damarys most popular?
The single biggest year for Damarys was 2004, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Damarys 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 Damarys in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,215 people with the name Damarys, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,798 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 Damarys 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 Damarys?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Damarys appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,213 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Damarys?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damarys is Hispanic at 97.4%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Damarys most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Damarys in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.4% (1,184 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 Damarys in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Damarys a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Damarys 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 Damarys still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Damarys 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 Damarys 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 Americans are named Damarys?
Want to know how many people have the name Damarys? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.