Deah
Meaning "beautiful" or "brilliant", of Arabic origin.
Name Census estimates that about 176 living Americans carry the first name Deah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Deah today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Deah births was 1980 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Deah. 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 Deah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
176
~ 1 in 1,947,468 Americans
Peak year
1980
16 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2006 SSA rank
#17,823
Tracked since 1965
Census
Deah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 302 people with the first name Deah, which placed it at #29,353 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
#29,353
National first-name rank
People counted
302
302 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Deah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Deah is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.6%). 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 Deah 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 Deah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.5% · 210
- Black or African American16.2% · 49
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.6% · 20
- Two or more races3.6% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 6
Popularity
Deah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Deah from the 1960s through to the 2000s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 75 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Deah 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 Deah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Deah
The name Deah is an ancient Arabic name that originates from the Semitic root words "dha'a" and "daw'a," which mean "light" and "brightness," respectively. This name has been in use since the early days of Islam and is believed to have been popularized during the 7th century AD.
Deah is a variation of the more common Arabic name Diya, which is also derived from the same root words. The name is often associated with the concept of enlightenment, wisdom, and spiritual guidance, making it a popular choice among Muslim families.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Deah can be found in the works of renowned Islamic scholars and historians from the 9th and 10th centuries. These scholars often mentioned individuals with the name Deah, suggesting its widespread use during that time period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Deah. One of the earliest known was Deah ibn al-Khalil, a prominent Arab mathematician and astronomer who lived in the 8th century AD. He made significant contributions to the fields of algebra and trigonometry.
Another famous Deah was Deah al-Din al-Razi, a Persian philosopher, and polymath who lived in the 12th century AD. He was known for his extensive writings on various subjects, including medicine, physics, and metaphysics.
In the 13th century, Deah al-Din al-Qunawi was a renowned Sufi mystic and philosopher from present-day Turkey. He was a prominent figure in the Mevlevi order of Sufism and wrote extensively on mystical and spiritual topics.
During the 14th century, Deah al-Din al-Suyuti was an Egyptian scholar and polymath who made significant contributions to various fields, including Quranic studies, hadith studies, and Arabic grammar.
More recently, in the 20th century, Deah Barakat was a prominent American Muslim who tragically lost his life in a hate crime incident in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 2015. His legacy has inspired efforts to promote interfaith understanding and combat Islamophobia.
People
Deah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Deah 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
Deah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Deah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 176 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Deah 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 1,947,468 US residents.
Is Deah a common name?
We classify Deah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 191 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Deah most popular?
The single biggest year for Deah was 1980, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Deah is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Deah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 302 people with the name Deah, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,353 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 Deah 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 Deah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Deah leans strongly female. 285 people counted with this name were female (95.0%), compared with 15 male bearers (5.0%). 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 Deah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Deah is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.6%). 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 Deah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Deah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.5% (210 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 Deah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Deah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Deah 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 Deah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Deah 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 Deah 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 common is the name Deah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.