Demetrus
Of Greek origin meaning "goddess of harvest", applicable to the feminine form.
Name Census estimates that about 627 living Americans carry the first name Demetrus. It is a predominantly male name (96.7% of registrations). The average person named Demetrus today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Demetrus births was 1974 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Demetrus. 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
627
~ 1 in 546,658 Americans
Peak year
1974
28 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,979
Tracked since 1962
Census
Demetrus in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 432 people with the first name Demetrus, which placed it at #22,880 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
#22,880
National first-name rank
People counted
432
432 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
87.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Demetrus
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Demetrus is Black at 87.3%. The next largest groups are White (4.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Demetrus 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 Demetrus at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American87.3% · 377
- White4.4% · 19
- Two or more races4.2% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Demetrus
Demetrus leans heavily male at 96.7% of total registrations, but 22 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Demetrus as a male name
- Ranked #11,219 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1973 (26 births)
Demetrus as a female name
- Ranked #9,979 in 1977
- 5 female births in 1977
- Peak: 1974 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Demetrus leans strongly male. 367 people counted with this name were male (85.7%), compared with 61 female bearers (14.3%).
Popularity
Demetrus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Demetrus from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 207 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
Demetrus 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 Demetrus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Demetrus' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Missouri, Alabama, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Demetrus, while North Carolina, Alabama, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Demetrus
The name Demetrus has its origins in Greek culture and language, dating back to ancient times. It is a variant of the Greek name Demetrios, which is derived from the word "Demeter," the name of the Greek goddess of agriculture, grain, and fertility.
Demetrius was a common name among ancient Greeks, particularly in the Hellenistic period from the 4th to 1st century BCE. It was borne by several notable historical figures, including Demetrius I of Macedon, also known as Demetrius Poliorcetes (336-283 BCE), a powerful ruler who succeeded Alexander the Great and gained control over much of Greece and Asia Minor.
Another famous bearer of the name was Demetrius of Phaleron (350-283 BCE), an Athenian orator, statesman, and philosopher who served as the governor of Athens under the Macedonian rule. He is credited with establishing the first public library in Athens, laying the foundation for the famous Library of Alexandria.
In the 1st century CE, Demetrius the Cynic was a prominent Cynic philosopher known for his wit and sarcasm. He was a contemporary of the Roman emperor Nero and is said to have mocked the emperor's pretensions to literary greatness.
During the Byzantine period, the name Demetrius was popular among Eastern Orthodox Christians, as Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki (c. 286-306 CE) was a revered martyr and patron saint of Thessaloniki, Greece.
In the Middle Ages, the name Demetrius was also used in Western Europe, though less commonly than in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. One notable bearer was Demetrius Chalcondyles (c. 1423-1511), a Greek scholar and teacher who played a significant role in the revival of Greek learning in Renaissance Italy.
Fast forward to the modern era, the name Demetrus, while uncommon, has been borne by several individuals, including Demetrus Charles Klitschko (born 1977), a Ukrainian-American professional boxer and former world heavyweight champion, and Demetrus Epps (born 1982), an American professional basketball player.
People
Demetrus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Demetrus 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
Demetrus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Demetrus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 627 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Demetrus 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 546,658 US residents.
Is Demetrus a common name?
We classify Demetrus as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 661 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Demetrus most popular?
The single biggest year for Demetrus was 1974, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Demetrus is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Demetrus in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 432 people with the name Demetrus, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,880 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 Demetrus 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 Demetrus?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Demetrus leans strongly male. 367 people counted with this name were male (85.7%), compared with 61 female bearers (14.3%). 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 Demetrus?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Demetrus is Black at 87.3%. The next largest groups are White (4.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Demetrus most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Demetrus in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.3% (377 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 Demetrus in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Demetrus a male name?
Yes, 96.7% of people registered as Demetrus 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 Demetrus still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Demetrus 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 Demetrus 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 Demetrus?
See how many Americans are named Demetrus on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.