Demetreus
Greek name derived from Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility.
Name Census estimates that about 228 living Americans carry the first name Demetreus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Demetreus today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Demetreus births was 1991 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Demetreus. 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
228
~ 1 in 1,503,309 Americans
Peak year
1991
13 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2012 SSA rank
#12,718
Tracked since 1969
Census
Demetreus in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 201 people with the first name Demetreus, which placed it at #38,294 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
#38,294
National first-name rank
People counted
201
201 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
78.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Demetreus
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Demetreus is Black at 78.1%. The next largest groups are White (6.5%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Demetreus 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 Demetreus at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American78.1% · 157
- White6.5% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 13
- Two or more races6.0% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 2
Popularity
Demetreus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Demetreus from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 77 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Demetreus 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 Demetreus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Demetreus' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Demetreus
The name Demetreus is derived from the ancient Greek name Demetrios, which was borne by the Demetrius who was one of the Diadochi, the successors of Alexander the Great. The name Demetrios is of uncertain meaning, but is possibly derived from the Greek word demeter meaning "mother of corn" or "earth mother". Alternatively, it may be derived from the word demetria which referred to an annual festival honoring the goddess Demeter.
The name Demetrios appears in ancient Greek literature and historical records from as early as the 4th century BC. One of the earliest recorded examples is Demetrius I Poliorcetes, a Macedonian king who reigned from 294–287 BC. He was known as Poliorcetes, which means "the Besieger" due to his skill in siege warfare.
Another notable figure with this name was Demetrius of Phalerum, an Athenian orator, philosopher, and statesman who lived from around 350–280 BC. He was appointed governor of Athens by the Macedonian king Cassander and was responsible for founding the city's first public library.
In the 2nd century AD, there was Demetrius the Cynic, a Greek philosopher and one of the most famous Cynic philosophers of his time. He was known for his ascetic lifestyle and his critiques of wealth and power.
During the Byzantine era, Demetrius of Thessalonica, a Christian martyr who was killed in the early 4th century AD, became a highly revered saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The name Demetrius was relatively common among Byzantine royalty and nobility.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Demetrius was Demetrius of Rostov, a Russian Orthodox saint and scholar who lived from 1651 to 1709. He was a prolific writer and is best known for his hagiographies, which were collections of lives of saints.
The name Demetreus, with the slight variation in spelling, appears to have emerged as an alternative form of the name Demetrius in the English-speaking world. While not as common as the original Greek spelling, it has been used throughout history, particularly in literature and other written works.
People
Demetreus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Demetreus 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
Demetreus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Demetreus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 228 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Demetreus 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 1,503,309 US residents.
Is Demetreus a common name?
We classify Demetreus as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 238 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Demetreus most popular?
The single biggest year for Demetreus was 1991, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Demetreus is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Demetreus in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 201 people with the name Demetreus, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,294 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 Demetreus 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 Demetreus?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Demetreus leans strongly male. 178 people counted with this name were male (90.4%), compared with 19 female bearers (9.6%). 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 Demetreus?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Demetreus is Black at 78.1%. The next largest groups are White (6.5%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Demetreus most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Demetreus in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.1% (157 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 Demetreus in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Demetreus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Demetreus 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 Demetreus still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Demetreus 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 Demetreus 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 are called Demetreus?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.