Denis
A masculine name of French origin meaning "from Dionysius".
Name Census estimates that about 15,473 living Americans carry the first name Denis. It is a predominantly male name (96.0% of registrations). The average person named Denis today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Denis births was 1952 (625 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Denis. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Denis is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 867 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
15K
~ 1 in 22,152 Americans
Peak year
1952
625 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,639
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Denis
Denis leans heavily male at 96.0% of total registrations, but 867 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Denis as a male name
- Ranked #1,639 in 2024
- 103 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1952 (618 births)
Denis as a female name
- Ranked #11,321 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (34 births)
Popularity
Denis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Denis from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 5,010 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Denis 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 Denis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Denis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. New York, California, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Denis, while Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 397 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Denis
The name Denis is derived from the ancient Greek name Dionysios, which was the name of the Greek god of wine, vegetation, pleasure, festivity, and madness. The name Dionysios is thought to have originated from the Greek words "dios" meaning divine and "nysus" meaning tree or vegetation. The name was Latinized to Dionysius during the Roman era.
Denis was a common name among early Christians, particularly in France, as it was borne by St. Denis, the patron saint of France. According to tradition, St. Denis was a Christian missionary who was martyred in the 3rd century AD and is often depicted carrying his own severed head.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Denis can be found in the 7th century AD, when a French abbot and scholar named Denis Petau or Dionysius Petavius (1583-1652) wrote extensively on theology and chronology. Another early bearer of the name was Denis the Carthusian (1402-1471), a Flemish theologian and mystic.
In the Middle Ages, the name Denis was popular in France and other parts of Europe, particularly among the nobility. One notable bearer of the name was Denis Papin (1647-1712), a French physicist, mathematician, and inventor, best known for his pioneering work on the steam digester, an early version of the pressure cooker.
During the Renaissance period, the name Denis was also used by several notable figures, including Denis Diderot (1713-1784), a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, who was a prominent figure during the Age of Enlightenment and served as the chief editor of the famous Encyclopédie.
In more recent history, the name Denis has been borne by several influential people, such as Denis Waitley (born 1933), an American motivational speaker and author, and Denis Naughten (born 1973), an Irish politician who has served as a member of the Irish parliament since 1997.
Throughout its long history, the name Denis has maintained its connection to its ancient Greek roots, symbolizing vitality, celebration, and a connection to nature and the divine.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Denis
People
Denis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Denis 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
Denis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Denis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,473 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Denis 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 22,152 US residents.
Is Denis a common name?
We classify Denis as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 21,503 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Denis most popular?
The single biggest year for Denis was 1952, when 625 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Denis is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Denis a male name?
Yes, 96.0% of people registered as Denis 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.
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.