Douglas
Masculine name of Scottish origin meaning "dark river".
Name Census estimates that about 414,023 living Americans carry the first name Douglas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Douglas today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Douglas births was 1957 (16,766 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Douglas. 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 Douglas with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Douglas is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,073 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Douglas have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
414K
~ 1 in 828 Americans
Peak year
1957
16,766 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2024 SSA rank
#853
Tracked since 1880
Census
Douglas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 383,163 people with the first name Douglas, which placed it at #122 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
#122
National first-name rank
People counted
383K
383,163 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
126.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Douglas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Douglas is White at 88.2%. The next largest groups are Black (4.7%) and Hispanic (3.5%). 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 Douglas 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 Douglas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.2% · 337,876
- Black or African American4.7% · 18,108
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 13,395
- Two or more races2.1% · 8,035
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 3,764
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1,985
Gender
Gender distribution for Douglas
Out of the 561,781 babies given the name Douglas since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Douglas as a male name
- Ranked #853 in 2024
- 283 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (16,731 births)
Douglas as a female name
- Ranked #14,662 in 2004
- 6 female births in 2004
- Peak: 1959 (53 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Douglas appears almost entirely male. Of the 383,164 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Douglas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Douglas from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 148,502 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Douglas 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 Douglas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Douglas' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Douglas, while Alaska, Wyoming, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10,908 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Douglas
The name Douglas has its roots in the Scottish Gaelic language and culture, originating in the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Gaelic words "dubh" meaning "dark" and "glas" meaning "stream" or "water." The name can be interpreted as referring to a dark stream, river, or valley.
In its earliest form, the name was spelled as "Douglasce" or "Douglasse" and was associated with the Douglas clan, a powerful Scottish family that played a significant role in the nation's history. The first recorded use of the name dates back to the 12th century, with records mentioning a person named William de Douglasce in 1175.
The name gained prominence in the 13th and 14th centuries, thanks to the exploits of the Douglas clan and its members, such as Sir James Douglas, who was a close companion of Robert the Bruce and played a crucial role in the Scottish Wars of Independence against England in the early 14th century. Another notable figure was Archibald Douglas, Earl of Douglas, who was a powerful nobleman and military leader in the late 14th century.
Over the centuries, the name has been borne by several notable historical figures, including:
1. James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton (c. 1516-1581), a Scottish nobleman and regent of Scotland during the minority of King James VI.
2. Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861), an American politician and lawyer who famously debated Abraham Lincoln and was a leading figure in the Democratic Party before the Civil War.
3. Lord Alfred Douglas (1870-1945), an English poet and former lover of Oscar Wilde, whose infamous relationship led to Wilde's imprisonment.
4. Norman Douglas (1868-1952), a British novelist and travel writer best known for his novel "South Wind."
5. Donald Wills Douglas Sr. (1892-1981), an American aviation pioneer and founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company, which later merged with McDonnell Aircraft to form McDonnell Douglas Corporation.
The name has endured over the centuries, transcending its Scottish origins and becoming popular in various parts of the English-speaking world, particularly in the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries with historical ties to the British Empire.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Douglas
People
Douglas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Douglas 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
Douglas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Douglas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 414,023 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Douglas 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 828 US residents.
Is Douglas a common name?
We classify Douglas as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 561,781 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Douglas most popular?
The single biggest year for Douglas was 1957, when 16,766 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Douglas is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Douglas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 383,163 people with the name Douglas, or 126.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #122 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 Douglas 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 Douglas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Douglas appears almost entirely male. Of the 383,164 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Douglas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Douglas is White at 88.2%. The next largest groups are Black (4.7%) and Hispanic (3.5%). 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 Douglas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Douglas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.2% (337,876 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 Douglas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Douglas a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Douglas 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 Douglas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Douglas 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 Douglas 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 Douglas?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Douglas at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.