Demiah
A feminine given name of uncertain origin, possibly from the Greek word meaning "to build".
Name Census estimates that about 268 living Americans carry the first name Demiah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Demiah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Demiah births was 2003 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Demiah. 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
268
~ 1 in 1,278,934 Americans
Peak year
2003
18 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2023 SSA rank
#13,858
Tracked since 1996
Census
Demiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 224 people with the first name Demiah, which placed it at #35,741 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
#35,741
National first-name rank
People counted
224
224 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
71.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Demiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Demiah is Black at 71.4%. The next largest groups are White (9.4%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Demiah 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 Demiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American71.4% · 160
- White9.4% · 21
- Two or more races8.5% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.1% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 1
Popularity
Demiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Demiah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 114 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Demiah 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 Demiah 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 Demiah
The name Demiah has its origins in the ancient Sumerian civilization, one of the earliest known cultures in Mesopotamia, dating back to around 3500 BC. It is derived from the Sumerian words "de" meaning "to create" and "miah" meaning "life," thus carrying the symbolic meaning of "creator of life" or "giver of life."
This name was initially associated with a lesser-known Sumerian deity or spirit believed to preside over fertility and childbirth. While not widely mentioned in the cuneiform tablets or inscriptions that have survived, some scholars suggest that the name may have been invoked during rituals or ceremonies related to pregnancy and childbirth in ancient Sumerian culture.
One of the earliest documented references to the name Demiah can be found in a fragmentary clay tablet dated to around 2500 BC, which appears to list various names and their meanings. However, the context and significance of this particular listing remain unclear.
Throughout history, the name Demiah has been relatively rare, with only a handful of notable individuals bearing this moniker. One such figure was Demiah al-Qahiri, a renowned Arabic scholar and physician who lived in Cairo during the 12th century AD (1125-1201). He made significant contributions to the fields of medicine and natural sciences, authoring several influential treatises on topics such as anatomy and pharmacology.
Another notable figure was Demiah ben Yitzchak, a Jewish scholar and philosopher from medieval Spain who lived in the 11th century AD (1035-1109). He is renowned for his work in reconciling Jewish theology with Aristotelian philosophy, and his writings had a profound impact on Jewish intellectual thought during that period.
In more recent times, Demiah Harron (1879-1944) was a pioneering American suffragette and activist who played a crucial role in the women's suffrage movement in the early 20th century. She was a prominent figure in the National American Woman Suffrage Association and worked tirelessly to secure women's right to vote.
Another individual of note was Demiah Khaled (1920-1998), an Egyptian novelist and playwright whose works explored themes of social justice, gender equality, and the struggles of the working class in mid-20th century Egypt. Her plays and novels were widely acclaimed and contributed to the literary and cultural landscape of the region.
Lastly, Demiah Al-Saffar (1946-2021) was a renowned Iraqi artist and sculptor whose works drew inspiration from ancient Mesopotamian art and culture. His sculptures and installations were widely exhibited across the Middle East and Europe, and he is considered one of the most influential contemporary artists from Iraq.
People
Demiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Demiah 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
Demiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Demiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 268 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Demiah 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 1,278,934 US residents.
Is Demiah a common name?
We classify Demiah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 271 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Demiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Demiah was 2003, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Demiah is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Demiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 224 people with the name Demiah, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,741 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 Demiah 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 Demiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Demiah leans strongly female. 190 people counted with this name were female (88.8%), compared with 24 male bearers (11.2%). 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 Demiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Demiah is Black at 71.4%. The next largest groups are White (9.4%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Demiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Demiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.4% (160 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 Demiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Demiah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Demiah 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 Demiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Demiah 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 Demiah 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 share the name Demiah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.