Dougal
Of Scottish origin, meaning "dark stranger" or "dark foreigner".
Name Census estimates that about 0 living Americans carry the first name Dougal. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dougal today is around 0 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dougal births was 1916 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dougal. 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 Dougal with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Dougal. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
0
~ - Americans
Peak year
1916
5 babies that year
Average age
-
1916 SSA rank
#4,078
Tracked since 1916
Census
Dougal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 104 people with the first name Dougal, which placed it at #52,876 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
#52,876
National first-name rank
People counted
104
104 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dougal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dougal is White at 71.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.1%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Dougal 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 Dougal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.2% · 74
- Black or African American23.1% · 24
- Two or more races4.8% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 1
Popularity
Dougal: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Dougal 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 Dougal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Dougal
The name Dougal is of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the elements "dubh" meaning "dark" and "gall" meaning "stranger" or "foreigner." It likely emerged during the early medieval period in the regions of Scotland inhabited by Gaelic-speaking Celts.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dougal can be found in the ancient Irish text, The Annals of Ulster, which mentions a "Dougal mac Somhairle" in the year 1247. This reference suggests the name was in use among Gaelic-speaking communities in Scotland and Ireland during the High Middle Ages.
In the 16th century, a Scottish Catholic priest named Dougal Buchanan (c. 1535-1616) is noted for his involvement in the Scottish Reformation. He initially opposed the Protestant Reformation but later converted to Protestantism and became a minister in the Church of Scotland.
Another notable figure with the name Dougal was Dougal Graham (c. 1610-1638), a Scottish explorer and writer. He is known for his travels in North America and his account of the Powhatan tribe, published in his work "A Vagabond's Odyssey" in 1635.
In the 19th century, Dougal McDougall (1809-1869) was a Scottish-American businessman and politician. He served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly and was involved in various business ventures in the state.
In more recent times, Dougal Dixon (born 1935) is a well-known British author and artist, known for his works of speculative evolution and his illustrations of hypothetical future organisms.
While the name Dougal has its roots in Scotland and has been used throughout history, it has also gained popularity in other parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries, due to the influence of Scottish culture and literature.
People
Dougal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dougal 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
Dougal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dougal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 0 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dougal 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 - US residents.
Is Dougal a common name?
We classify Dougal as "Very Rare". It ranks above 2.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dougal most popular?
The single biggest year for Dougal was 1916, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dougal is about 0 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dougal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 104 people with the name Dougal, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #52,876 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 Dougal 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 Dougal?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dougal leans strongly male. 102 people counted with this name were male (97.1%), compared with 3 female bearers (2.9%). 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 Dougal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dougal is White at 71.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.1%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Dougal most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dougal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.2% (74 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 Dougal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dougal a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dougal 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 Dougal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dougal 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 Dougal 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 Dougal?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.