Doy
A feminine Spanish name meaning "to give, bestow".
Name Census estimates that about 277 living Americans carry the first name Doy. It is a predominantly male name (95.6% of registrations). The average person named Doy today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Doy births was 1933 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Doy. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Doy is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Doys were born before 1964.
People living today
277
~ 1 in 1,237,380 Americans
Peak year
1933
27 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1987 SSA rank
#5,903
Tracked since 1914
Census
Doy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 387 people with the first name Doy, which placed it at #24,748 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
#24,748
National first-name rank
People counted
387
387 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Doy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doy is White at 79.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.5%). 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 Doy 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 Doy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.3% · 307
- Black or African American9.0% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.5% · 25
- Two or more races3.1% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Doy
Doy leans heavily male at 95.6% of total registrations, but 34 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Doy as a male name
- Ranked #7,268 in 1987
- 5 male births in 1987
- Peak: 1933 (27 births)
Doy as a female name
- Ranked #5,903 in 1953
- 5 female births in 1953
- Peak: 1927 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Doy leans strongly male. 325 people counted with this name were male (82.7%), compared with 68 female bearers (17.3%).
Popularity
Doy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Doy from the 1910s through to the 1980s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 191 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
Doy 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 Doy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Doys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. West Virginia, Arkansas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Doy, while Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 21 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Doy
The name Doy has its origins in the ancient Aramaic language, spoken in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East during the 1st millennium BC. It is derived from the Aramaic word "doya," meaning "desired" or "longed for." This suggests that the name was given to children who were eagerly awaited or desired by their parents.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Doy can be found in the ancient Hebrew scriptures, specifically in the Book of Ezra, which dates back to the 5th century BC. In this text, Doy is mentioned as the name of a Levite priest who assisted in the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.
During the Byzantine era, which spanned from the 4th to the 15th century AD, the name Doy gained popularity among Greek-speaking communities in the eastern Mediterranean region. It was often used as a shortened form of the name Theodoros, which means "gift of God."
In the 9th century AD, a notable figure named Doy ibn Mas'ud al-Kindi was a renowned Arab philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who made significant contributions to the fields of optics and cryptography. He is considered one of the earliest pioneers of the scientific method.
Another historical figure bearing the name Doy was Doy Belshazzar, a Babylonian prince who lived in the 6th century BC. According to the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible, he was the son of King Nebuchadnezzar and witnessed the famous "writing on the wall" incident, which foretold the fall of the Babylonian Empire.
In the 12th century, Doy al-Bakri was an influential Arab geographer and scholar from Andalusia (modern-day Spain). He is best known for his comprehensive work titled "The Book of Routes and Kingdoms," which provided detailed descriptions of the regions and peoples of the known world at that time.
During the Renaissance period, a notable figure named Doy Boccaccio (1313-1375) was an Italian writer, poet, and scholar who made significant contributions to the development of Renaissance humanism and the Italian vernacular literature. His most famous work, "The Decameron," is a collection of novellas that offers a vivid portrayal of 14th-century Italian society.
People
Doy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Doy 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
Doy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Doy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 277 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Doy 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 1,237,380 US residents.
Is Doy a common name?
We classify Doy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 765 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Doy most popular?
The single biggest year for Doy was 1933, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Doy is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Doy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 387 people with the name Doy, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,748 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 Doy 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 Doy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Doy leans strongly male. 325 people counted with this name were male (82.7%), compared with 68 female bearers (17.3%). 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 Doy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doy is White at 79.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.5%). 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 Doy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Doy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.3% (307 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 Doy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Doy a male name?
Yes, 95.6% of people registered as Doy 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 Doy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Doy 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 Doy 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 Americans are named Doy?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.