Dee
A diminutive form of names like Diana, Deanna, or Dorothy.
Name Census estimates that about 13,384 living Americans carry the first name Dee. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 68.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Dee today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dee births was 1961 (704 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dee. 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 Dee with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Dee started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 25,609 Americans
Peak year
1961
704 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2022 SSA rank
#12,782
Tracked since 1880
Census
Dee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,342 people with the first name Dee, which placed it at #1,585 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
#1,585
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
20,342 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dee is White at 69.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.6%). 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 Dee 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 Dee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.9% · 14,211
- Black or African American15.5% · 3,154
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.6% · 1,132
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 1,039
- Two or more races2.9% · 594
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 212
Gender
Gender distribution for Dee
Dee is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 23,100 total registrations, 7,269 (31.5%) were male and 15,831 (68.5%) were female.
Dee as a male name
- Ranked #12,782 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1919 (125 births)
Dee as a female name
- Ranked #13,855 in 2012
- 7 female births in 2012
- Peak: 1961 (623 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dee on both sides of the split. Of the 20,339 people counted with this name, 4,513 were male (22.2%) and 15,826 were female (77.8%).
Popularity
Dee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dee from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 5,510 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dee 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 Dee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. Texas, California, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Dee, while Nevada, District of Columbia, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 358 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dee
The name Dee has its origins in the Old English language and can be traced back to the 5th century AD. It is derived from the word "deor," which means "deer" or "beloved." This name was initially used as a pet name or nickname for someone who was considered dear or beloved.
The name Dee gained popularity during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, particularly among the nobility and ruling classes. It was often used as a shortened form of longer names such as Deirdre or Deorwine. The earliest recorded use of the name Dee can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript commissioned in 1086 by William the Conqueror, which recorded landholders in England at that time.
In the Middle Ages, the name Dee was associated with St. Dionysius or St. Denis, the patron saint of France. This association likely contributed to the name's popularity in medieval Europe. One of the earliest notable figures with the name Dee was John Dee (1527-1608), an English mathematician, astronomer, and occultist who served as an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I.
During the Renaissance period, the name Dee was particularly popular among the intellectual and artistic circles. One notable figure was Dee Nihill (1562-1636), an Italian composer and musician who served as the court composer for the Duke of Mantua. Another was Dee Scudamore (1619-1684), an English aristocrat and politician who was a member of the House of Commons.
In the 18th century, the name Dee was associated with the literary world. Dee Lewis (1708-1786) was a Welsh poet and writer who wrote in both English and Welsh. Dee Aylmer (1734-1804) was an English writer and translator who is best known for her translations of French novels.
In the 19th century, the name Dee gained popularity in the United States. One notable figure was Dee Brown (1908-2002), an American novelist and historian who wrote extensively about the American West and the Native American experience. Another was Dee Snider (born 1955), an American singer-songwriter and actor who is best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister.
Throughout history, the name Dee has been associated with various fields, including literature, music, politics, and academia. While its popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries, it has endured as a distinctive and charming name with a rich cultural heritage.
People
Dee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dee 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
Dee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,384 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dee 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 25,609 US residents.
Is Dee a common name?
We classify Dee as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 23,100 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dee most popular?
The single biggest year for Dee was 1961, when 704 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dee is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,342 people with the name Dee, or 6.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,585 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 Dee 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 Dee?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dee on both sides of the split. Of the 20,339 people counted with this name, 4,513 were male (22.2%) and 15,826 were female (77.8%). 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 Dee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dee is White at 69.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.6%). 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 Dee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.9% (14,211 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 Dee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dee a female name?
Yes, 68.5% of people registered as Dee 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 Dee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dee 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 Dee 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 Dee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.