Damiana
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "subduer" or "tamer".
Name Census estimates that about 628 living Americans carry the first name Damiana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Damiana today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Damiana births was 2006 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Damiana. 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 Damiana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
628
~ 1 in 545,787 Americans
Peak year
2006
33 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,779
Tracked since 1915
Census
Damiana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,136 people with the first name Damiana, which placed it at #11,344 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
#11,344
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,136 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
63.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Damiana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damiana is Hispanic at 63.9%. The next largest groups are White (18.7%) and Black (9.5%). 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 Damiana 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 Damiana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino63.9% · 726
- White18.7% · 212
- Black or African American9.5% · 108
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 40
- Two or more races3.0% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 16
Popularity
Damiana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Damiana from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 229 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
Damiana 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 Damiana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Damianas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Damiana
The name Damiana has its origins in the Late Latin name Damianus, which was derived from the Greek name Damianos. The name Damianos, in turn, can be traced back to the Greek word "damian," which means "to tame" or "to subdue." This suggests that the name Damiana may have been associated with strength, power, or the ability to conquer.
Damiana is believed to have first gained popularity during the early Christian era, as it was borne by several early Christian saints and martyrs. One of the most notable figures was Saint Damian, a 4th-century Christian martyr who was tortured and executed for his faith during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
In the Middle Ages, the name Damiana became widely used across Europe, particularly in regions with strong Christian traditions. It was frequently chosen as a name for girls born on the feast day of Saint Damian or in honor of other Christian saints and martyrs bearing the name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Damiana can be found in the writings of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), who mentioned a character named Damiana in his famous work, the Divine Comedy.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Damiana. These include Saint Damiana of Assisi (1233-1256), an Italian nun and follower of Saint Francis of Assisi; Damiana Milon Ruggia (1550-1637), an Italian painter and nun; and Damiana Eusebia Semo (1825-1895), a Mexican nun who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Pure Virgin Mary.
Other famous individuals with the name Damiana include Damiana Maslennikova (1768-1810), a Russian poet and translator; Damiana Ponce Román (1835-1916), a Mexican educator and feminist; and Damiana Eugenio (1899-1979), a Filipino lawyer and human rights activist.
The name Damiana has continued to be used throughout the world, particularly in regions with strong Catholic or Christian traditions, such as Latin America and parts of Europe. While its popularity has fluctuated over time, the name remains a testament to its rich historical and cultural significance.
People
Damiana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Damiana 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
Damiana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Damiana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 628 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Damiana 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 545,787 US residents.
Is Damiana a common name?
We classify Damiana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 698 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Damiana most popular?
The single biggest year for Damiana was 2006, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Damiana is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Damiana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,136 people with the name Damiana, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,344 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 Damiana 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 Damiana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Damiana appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,131 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Damiana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damiana is Hispanic at 63.9%. The next largest groups are White (18.7%) and Black (9.5%). 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 Damiana most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Damiana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.9% (726 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 Damiana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Damiana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Damiana 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 Damiana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Damiana 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 Damiana 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 have the name Damiana?
See how many people have the name Damiana on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.