Doris
A feminine name derived from the Greek meaning "gift of the ocean".
Name Census estimates that about 103,604 living Americans carry the first name Doris. It is a predominantly female name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Doris today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Doris births was 1928 (16,678 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Doris. 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 Doris with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Doris is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 3,241 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Doris is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Doris' were born before 1962.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Doris have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
104K
~ 1 in 3,308 Americans
Peak year
1928
16,678 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1989 SSA rank
#2,195
Tracked since 1880
Census
Doris in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 174,010 people with the first name Doris, which placed it at #318 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
#318
National first-name rank
People counted
174K
174,010 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
57.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Doris
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doris is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Black (18.4%) and Hispanic (10.1%). 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 Doris 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 Doris at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.4% · 117,256
- Black or African American18.4% · 31,975
- Hispanic or Latino10.1% · 17,515
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 3,539
- Two or more races1.6% · 2,721
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1,004
Gender
Gender distribution for Doris
Out of the 465,726 babies given the name Doris since 1880, 99.3% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Doris as a male name
- Ranked #7,236 in 1989
- 6 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1930 (124 births)
Doris as a female name
- Ranked #2,195 in 2024
- 86 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1928 (16,574 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Doris appears almost entirely female. Of the 174,013 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Doris: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Doris from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 152,134 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Doris 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 Doris during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Doris' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Texas recorded the most babies named Doris, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8,823 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Doris
The given name Doris has its origins in the ancient Greek language. It is derived from the Greek word "doron," which means "gift" or "present." This name first came into use in ancient Greece during the Classical period, which spanned from the 5th to 4th centuries BC.
Doris was a relatively common name among women in ancient Greece, particularly in the region of Doris, a small territory located in central Greece. The name may have been inspired by the Greek mythological figure Doris, who was an Oceanid, or a sea nymph associated with the sea god Oceanus.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Doris can be found in Plato's philosophical dialogues, where he mentions a woman named Doris. Additionally, the name appears in various ancient Greek inscriptions and historical records from that era.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Doris. One of the earliest examples is Doris of Locri (c. 570 BC), an ancient Greek woman who was considered one of the most beautiful women of her time. Another notable figure was Doris of Erythrae (c. 300 BC), a renowned poet and writer from the ancient Greek city of Erythrae.
In later centuries, the name Doris continued to be used, albeit less frequently. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff (1924-2019), better known as Doris Day, an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist who rose to fame in the 1950s and 1960s.
Another notable Doris was Doris Lessing (1919-2013), a British novelist and Nobel Laureate in Literature, known for her novels such as "The Golden Notebook" and her exploration of feminist themes.
Other prominent figures with the name Doris include Doris Humphrey (1895-1958), an American dancer and choreographer who helped establish modern dance as an art form, and Doris Kenyon (1897-1979), an American silent film actress and stage performer.
While the name Doris experienced a decline in popularity in the latter half of the 20th century, it remains a beautiful and meaningful name with a rich historical legacy, reminding us of its ancient Greek origins and the concept of a "gift" or "present."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Doris
People
Doris + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Doris 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
Doris: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Doris?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 103,604 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Doris 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 3,308 US residents.
Is Doris a common name?
We classify Doris as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 465,726 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Doris most popular?
The single biggest year for Doris was 1928, when 16,678 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Doris is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Doris in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 174,010 people with the name Doris, or 57.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #318 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 Doris 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 Doris?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Doris appears almost entirely female. Of the 174,013 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 Doris?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doris is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Black (18.4%) and Hispanic (10.1%). 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 Doris most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Doris in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.4% (117,256 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 Doris in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Doris a female name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Doris 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 Doris still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Doris 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 Doris 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 common is the name Doris?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Doris at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.