Di
A Chinese given name with meanings like "enlightened" or "earth".
Name Census estimates that about 58 living Americans carry the first name Di. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Di today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Di births was 1999 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Di. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Di. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
58
~ 1 in 5,909,558 Americans
Peak year
1999
15 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
1999 SSA rank
#7,337
Tracked since 1946
Census
Di in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,964 people with the first name Di, which placed it at #5,697 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
#5,697
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
2,964 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
83.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Di
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Di is Asian/Pacific Islander at 83.4%. The next largest groups are White (11.0%) and Hispanic (2.4%). 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 Di 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 Di at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander83.4% · 2,473
- White11.0% · 325
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 72
- Black or African American2.2% · 65
- Two or more races0.9% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Di
Di leans heavily female at 81.4% of total registrations, but 13 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Di as a male name
- Ranked #7,337 in 1999
- 8 male births in 1999
- Peak: 1999 (8 births)
Di as a female name
- Ranked #11,711 in 1999
- 7 female births in 1999
- Peak: 1958 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Di on both sides of the split. Of the 2,961 people counted with this name, 1,266 were male (42.8%) and 1,695 were female (57.2%).
Popularity
Di: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Di from the 1940s through to the 1990s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 23 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Di 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 Di 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 Di
The name Di is a diminutive form of the name Diana, which has its origins in the ancient Roman mythology. Diana was the goddess of the hunt, the moon, and nature, and her name is derived from the ancient Roman word "dius," meaning "divine" or "heavenly." The name Di is believed to have been used as a shortened form of Diana as early as the 2nd century AD in the Roman Empire.
The earliest recorded use of the name Di can be traced back to the 4th century AD, when it appeared in various inscriptions and historical records from the Roman era. One notable example is Saint Digna, a 4th-century Christian martyr from Córdoba, Spain, whose name is believed to be a variant of Di.
Throughout history, the name Di has been borne by several notable individuals. One of the earliest was Di Renjie (630-700 AD), a Chinese statesman and scholar-official during the Tang Dynasty, renowned for his contributions to administrative reforms and his literary works.
Another noteworthy figure was Di Baramikusa (c. 800 AD), a medieval Buddhist scholar and translator from the Gandhara region (modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan), who played a crucial role in the transmission of Buddhist texts to China and Japan.
In the 15th century, Di Battista Alberti (1404-1472), an Italian Renaissance humanist, author, and architect, made significant contributions to the development of architectural theory and practice, including the design of the Palazzo Rucellai in Florence.
During the Italian Renaissance, the name Di was also associated with the renowned artist and sculptor, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), commonly known as Michelangelo. His artistic masterpieces, such as the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the sculpture of David, are among the most celebrated works of art in the world.
In more recent times, Di Xian (1923-2011), a Chinese mathematician and computer scientist, is renowned for his contributions to the development of computer science in China and his pioneering work in the field of computer graphics.
People
Di + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Di 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
Di: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Di?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 58 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Di 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 5,909,558 US residents.
Is Di a common name?
We classify Di as "Very Rare". It ranks above 56.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 70 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Di most popular?
The single biggest year for Di was 1999, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Di is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Di in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,964 people with the name Di, or 0.98 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,697 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 Di 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 Di?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Di on both sides of the split. Of the 2,961 people counted with this name, 1,266 were male (42.8%) and 1,695 were female (57.2%). 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 Di?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Di is Asian/Pacific Islander at 83.4%. The next largest groups are White (11.0%) and Hispanic (2.4%). 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 Di most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Di in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.4% (2,473 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 Di in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Di a female name?
Yes, 81.4% of people registered as Di 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 Di still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Di 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 Di 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 named Di?
You can see how many people have the name Di on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.