Digna
Feminine name of Latin origin signifying "worthy, honorable, dignified".
Name Census estimates that about 456 living Americans carry the first name Digna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Digna today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Digna births was 1996 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Digna. 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
456
~ 1 in 751,654 Americans
Peak year
1996
24 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,055
Tracked since 1950
Census
Digna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,101 people with the first name Digna, which placed it at #3,421 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
#3,421
National first-name rank
People counted
6.1K
6,101 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
83.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Digna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Digna is Hispanic at 83.0%. The next largest groups are White (7.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.8%). 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 Digna 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 Digna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino83.0% · 5,064
- White7.7% · 467
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.8% · 417
- Black or African American2.1% · 128
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 14
- Two or more races0.2% · 11
Popularity
Digna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Digna from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 126 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
Digna 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 Digna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dignas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Digna
The name Digna has its origins in the Latin language and culture, dating back to ancient Roman times. It is derived from the Latin word "dignus," which means "worthy," "deserving," or "appropriate." This root word is also the source of the English words "dignity" and "dignify."
In ancient Rome, the name Digna was likely given to girls as a reflection of their perceived worthiness or to signify the parents' hope that their daughter would grow up to be a person of high moral character and dignity. The name's early usage can be traced back to inscriptions and records from the Roman era, although specific examples are scarce.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Digna was a Roman Christian martyr who lived in the 3rd century AD. According to tradition, she was a young woman from Rome who was martyred during the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Valerian. Her feast day is celebrated on January 25th in the Catholic Church.
Another notable Digna in history was Digna de Christo, a Spanish mystic and Franciscan nun who lived in the 16th century (1510-1590). She was known for her visions and spiritual writings, which were highly regarded within the Catholic Church during her lifetime.
In the 17th century, Digna Vela y Acuña (1625-1703) was a Spanish nun and writer who was renowned for her poetry and spiritual works. She was a member of the Order of the Immaculate Conception and served as the abbess of several convents in Spain.
Moving into the 19th century, Digna Ochoa (1832-1901) was a Mexican educator and feminist who fought for women's rights and access to education. She founded several schools for girls in Mexico and was a pioneering figure in the country's early feminist movement.
In more recent times, Digna Luz Ibáñez Gómez (1924-2018) was a Paraguayan politician and diplomat who served as the first female ambassador of Paraguay to various countries, including the United States and Mexico. She was a prominent figure in Paraguay's political landscape and played a significant role in advancing women's rights and representation in her home country.
While the name Digna has maintained a consistent presence throughout history, particularly in Spanish-speaking countries, it has never been among the most popular names in any region. Nevertheless, it continues to be used as a given name, carrying with it the connotations of worthiness, dignity, and moral uprightness that it has embodied since its ancient Roman origins.
People
Digna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Digna 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
Digna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Digna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 456 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Digna 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 751,654 US residents.
Is Digna a common name?
We classify Digna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 496 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Digna most popular?
The single biggest year for Digna was 1996, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Digna is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Digna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,101 people with the name Digna, or 2.02 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,421 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 Digna 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 Digna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Digna appears almost entirely female. Of the 6,108 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Digna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Digna is Hispanic at 83.0%. The next largest groups are White (7.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.8%). 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 Digna most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Digna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.0% (5,064 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 Digna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Digna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Digna 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 Digna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Digna 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 Digna 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 have the name Digna?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Digna, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.