Doyne
A masculine given name of Irish origin meaning "great sovereign" or "brown-haired one".
Name Census estimates that about 136 living Americans carry the first name Doyne. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Doyne today is around 78 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Doyne births was 1934 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Doyne. 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 Doyne is about 78 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Doynes were born before 1958.
People living today
136
~ 1 in 2,520,252 Americans
Peak year
1934
28 babies that year
Average age
78
years old
1973 SSA rank
#4,658
Tracked since 1913
Census
Doyne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 218 people with the first name Doyne, which placed it at #36,419 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
#36,419
National first-name rank
People counted
218
218 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Doyne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doyne is White at 89.9%. The next largest groups are Black (4.6%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Doyne 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 Doyne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.9% · 196
- Black or African American4.6% · 10
- Two or more races3.2% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 3
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 1
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Doyne
Doyne leans heavily male at 87.7% of total registrations, but 63 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Doyne as a male name
- Ranked #4,658 in 1973
- 6 male births in 1973
- Peak: 1934 (28 births)
Doyne as a female name
- Ranked #4,852 in 1943
- 5 female births in 1943
- Peak: 1919 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Doyne on both sides of the split. Of the 217 people counted with this name, 173 were male (79.7%) and 44 were female (20.3%).
Popularity
Doyne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Doyne from the 1910s through to the 1970s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 136 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Doyne 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 Doyne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Doynes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Doyne
The name Doyne is of English origin and is believed to have derived from the Old English word "dunn," meaning "brown" or "dark-colored." It was likely initially used as a nickname or descriptive name for someone with dark hair or complexion. The earliest known records of the name date back to the 13th century.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Sir John Doyne, a prominent English landowner and knight who lived in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. He fought in the Scottish Wars of Independence under King Edward I and was rewarded with lands in Yorkshire for his service.
In the 15th century, the name appears in historical records associated with the Doyne family of Shropshire, England. This family was influential in the region and held various positions of authority and landholdings over several generations.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Doyne was relatively uncommon but can be found in various records, including parish registers and court documents. One notable figure from this period was Sir William Doyne, a Member of Parliament for Nottinghamshire in the late 16th century.
In the 19th century, the name gained some prominence with the birth of Robert Walter Doyne (1857-1916), an English ophthalmologist who made significant contributions to the field of eye surgery and treatment. He is particularly known for his work on congenital ocular disorders and for describing a condition now known as "Doyne's honeycomb retinal dystrophy."
Another noteworthy individual was John Doyne (1861-1951), an Irish-born Australian businessman and philanthropist. He made his fortune in the mining industry and donated a significant portion of his wealth to various charitable causes, including the establishment of the Doyne Hostel for homeless men in Sydney.
While not a common name, Doyne has been borne by several other individuals throughout history, including Doyne Farmer (born 1957), an American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his work in complex systems and chaos theory, and Doyne Brammer (born 1949), a Canadian politician and former member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.
People
Doyne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Doyne 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
Doyne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Doyne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 136 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Doyne 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 2,520,252 US residents.
Is Doyne a common name?
We classify Doyne as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 512 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Doyne most popular?
The single biggest year for Doyne was 1934, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Doyne is about 78 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Doyne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 218 people with the name Doyne, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,419 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 Doyne 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 Doyne?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Doyne on both sides of the split. Of the 217 people counted with this name, 173 were male (79.7%) and 44 were female (20.3%). 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 Doyne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doyne is White at 89.9%. The next largest groups are Black (4.6%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Doyne most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Doyne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.9% (196 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 Doyne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Doyne a male name?
Yes, 87.7% of people registered as Doyne 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 Doyne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Doyne 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 Doyne 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 Doyne?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Doyne, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.