Damiano
Of Italian origin, meaning "to tame" or "to subdue".
Name Census estimates that about 495 living Americans carry the first name Damiano. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Damiano today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Damiano births was 1985 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Damiano. 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 Damiano with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
495
~ 1 in 692,433 Americans
Peak year
1985
25 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,720
Tracked since 1916
Census
Damiano in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 608 people with the first name Damiano, which placed it at #17,906 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
#17,906
National first-name rank
People counted
608
608 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Damiano
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damiano is White at 73.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.3%) and Black (9.2%). 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 Damiano 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 Damiano at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.5% · 447
- Hispanic or Latino12.3% · 75
- Black or African American9.2% · 56
- Two or more races2.1% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 6
Popularity
Damiano: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Damiano from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 109 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Damiano remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Damiano 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 Damiano during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Damianos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Florida, New York, South Carolina recorded the most babies named Damiano, while South Carolina, New York, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Damiano
The name Damiano is of Italian origin and has its roots in the Late Latin name Damianus. The name is derived from the Greek word "damianos," which means "to tame" or "to subdue." This suggests that the name may have been given to individuals who were seen as having a gentle or calming nature.
Damiano is closely related to the name Damian, which has been in use since ancient times. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Damian can be found in the Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of a Christian martyr from the 4th century AD. Saint Damian, along with his brother Cosmas, were physicians who provided medical care to the poor and were eventually martyred for their faith during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
During the Middle Ages, the name Damiano gained popularity in Italy, particularly in the regions of Tuscany and Umbria. It was often associated with religious figures and saints, such as Blessed Damiano Porzio (1455-1495), an Italian Dominican friar and preacher known for his devotion to the Rosary.
One of the most notable individuals with the name Damiano in history was Damiano da Bergamo (1475-1549), an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. He is best known for his frescoes in the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan and for his contributions to the architectural design of the Certosa di Pavia, a renowned monastery near Pavia, Italy.
Another significant figure was Damiano Muzi (1776-1828), an Italian Catholic prelate who served as the Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland from 1818 to 1825. He played a crucial role in mediating disputes between the Swiss cantons and the Holy See during a period of religious and political tensions.
In the 20th century, Damiano Tommasini (1912-1994) was an Italian footballer who played as a defender and represented Italy in the 1938 FIFA World Cup. He spent most of his club career with AC Milan, where he won four Serie A titles.
Damiano Cunego (born 1981) is a contemporary Italian professional road cyclist who has won numerous prestigious races, including the Giro d'Italia in 2004 and the Amstel Gold Race in 2008. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful Italian cyclists of his generation.
People
Damiano + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Damiano 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
Damiano: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Damiano?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 495 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Damiano 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 692,433 US residents.
Is Damiano a common name?
We classify Damiano as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 525 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Damiano most popular?
The single biggest year for Damiano was 1985, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Damiano is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Damiano in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 608 people with the name Damiano, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,906 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 Damiano 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 Damiano?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Damiano appears almost entirely male. Of the 604 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Damiano?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damiano is White at 73.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.3%) and Black (9.2%). 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 Damiano most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Damiano in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.5% (447 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 Damiano in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Damiano a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Damiano 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 Damiano still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Damiano 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 Damiano 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 Damiano?
See how many people share the name Damiano on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.