Donte
A masculine name of French origin meaning "enduring and indefatigable".
Name Census estimates that about 15,288 living Americans carry the first name Donte. It is a predominantly male name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Donte today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Donte births was 1997 (589 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Donte. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Donte with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Donte is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 137 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
15K
~ 1 in 22,420 Americans
Peak year
1997
589 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,969
Tracked since 1961
Census
Donte in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,207 people with the first name Donte, which placed it at #2,300 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
#2,300
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,207 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
79.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Donte
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donte is Black at 79.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.9%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Donte 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 Donte at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American79.4% · 8,902
- Two or more races7.9% · 882
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 697
- White5.2% · 585
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 86
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 55
Gender
Gender distribution for Donte
Out of the 15,753 babies given the name Donte since 1880, 99.1% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Donte as a male name
- Ranked #1,969 in 2024
- 79 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1997 (589 births)
Donte as a female name
- Ranked #12,900 in 1998
- 6 female births in 1998
- Peak: 1986 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donte appears almost entirely male. Of the 11,207 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Donte: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Donte from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 5,024 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
Donte 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 Donte during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dontes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. California, Maryland, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Donte, while West Virginia, Nebraska, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 362 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Donte
The name Donte has its origins in the Italian language and culture. It is believed to have derived from the Italian name Donato, which itself is a form of the Latin name Donatus, meaning "given" or "gift." The name can be traced back to the late Roman period, around the 4th or 5th century AD.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Donte is in the literary work of Dante Alighieri, the famous Italian poet and philosopher from the 13th and 14th centuries. Dante's full name was Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri, and it is thought that the name Donte may have been a shortened version or a nickname derived from his given name.
In the 16th century, there was a notable Italian painter and architect named Donato Bramante (1444-1514), who was also known as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio. The name Donato was a common variant of the name at that time.
Another historical figure with the name Donte was Donte Pangan, a Filipino revolutionary and military leader who fought against Spanish colonial rule in the late 19th century. He was born in 1864 and played a significant role in the Philippine Revolution of 1896-1898.
In the 20th century, one of the most famous individuals with the name Donte was Donte Stallworth, an American professional football player who played in the National Football League (NFL) from 2002 to 2012. He was born in 1980 and had a successful career as a wide receiver for several teams, including the New Orleans Saints and the Cleveland Browns.
Additionally, Donte Curry is a contemporary American actor and musician, born in 1983, who has appeared in various television shows and films, notably in the FX series "Justified" and the film "Battleship."
While the name Donte has Italian roots, it has been adopted and used in various cultures and communities around the world, particularly in English-speaking countries. However, its origins can be traced back to the Latin Donatus and the Italian Donato, reflecting the rich history and influence of Italian culture on naming traditions.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Donte
People
Donte + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Donte 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
Donte: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Donte?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,288 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Donte 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 22,420 US residents.
Is Donte a common name?
We classify Donte 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, 15,753 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Donte most popular?
The single biggest year for Donte was 1997, when 589 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Donte is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Donte in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,207 people with the name Donte, or 3.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,300 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 Donte 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 Donte?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Donte appears almost entirely male. Of the 11,207 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Donte?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Donte is Black at 79.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.9%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Donte most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Donte in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.4% (8,902 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 Donte in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Donte a male name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Donte 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 Donte still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Donte 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 Donte 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 Donte?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.