Dwight
Anglo-Saxon name meaning "bright" or "vigorous".
Name Census estimates that about 52,988 living Americans carry the first name Dwight. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dwight today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dwight births was 1953 (2,708 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dwight. 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 Dwight with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Dwight is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 320 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Dwight have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
53K
~ 1 in 6,469 Americans
Peak year
1953
2,708 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,527
Tracked since 1880
Census
Dwight in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 49,316 people with the first name Dwight, which placed it at #916 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
#916
National first-name rank
People counted
49K
49,316 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dwight
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dwight is White at 59.3%. The next largest groups are Black (33.3%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Dwight 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 Dwight at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.3% · 29,254
- Black or African American33.3% · 16,399
- Two or more races2.9% · 1,412
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 1,065
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 712
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 474
Gender
Gender distribution for Dwight
Out of the 78,861 babies given the name Dwight 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.
Dwight as a male name
- Ranked #2,527 in 2024
- 53 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1953 (2,698 births)
Dwight as a female name
- Ranked #8,796 in 1986
- 7 female births in 1986
- Peak: 1958 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dwight appears almost entirely male. Of the 49,320 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Dwight: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dwight 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 20,938 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
Dwight 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 Dwight during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dwights live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Ohio, North Carolina, Texas recorded the most babies named Dwight, while Alaska, Nevada, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,438 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dwight
The name Dwight is of Old English origin, derived from the words "deor" meaning "deer" and "wiht" meaning "creature" or "being." It likely emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. The name was initially used to describe a person with a brave or courageous spirit, likening them to the strength and resilience of a deer.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dwight can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as a surname, indicating its use as a personal name predates this record.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Dwight. One of the most famous was Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, who served from 1953 to 1961. Born in 1890, he was a highly decorated military officer and played a crucial role as the Supreme Allied Commander during World War II.
Another well-known figure was Dwight L. Moody, an American evangelist and publisher who lived from 1837 to 1899. He founded several educational institutions, including the Northfield Seminary for Young Women (now Northfield Mount Hermon School) and the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
In the realm of literature, Dwight Macdonald (1906-1982) was an influential American writer, editor, and social critic known for his contributions to publications like Partisan Review and Politics.
The name Dwight also has ties to the world of sports. Dwight Gooden, born in 1964, was a highly successful Major League Baseball pitcher who played for teams like the New York Mets and the New York Yankees.
Lastly, Dwight Yoakam, born in 1956, is a renowned American singer-songwriter and actor who has made significant contributions to the country music genre, known for his distinctive vocal style and his fusion of traditional and contemporary sounds.
These examples illustrate the enduring presence of the name Dwight throughout various epochs and across diverse fields, reflecting its rich historical significance and cultural resonance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Dwight
People
Dwight + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dwight 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
Dwight: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dwight?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 52,988 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dwight 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 6,469 US residents.
Is Dwight a common name?
We classify Dwight as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 78,861 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dwight most popular?
The single biggest year for Dwight was 1953, when 2,708 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dwight 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 Dwight in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 49,316 people with the name Dwight, or 16.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #916 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 Dwight 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 Dwight?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dwight appears almost entirely male. Of the 49,320 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Dwight?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dwight is White at 59.3%. The next largest groups are Black (33.3%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Dwight most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dwight in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.3% (29,254 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 Dwight in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dwight a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Dwight 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 Dwight still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dwight 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 Dwight 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 Dwight?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Dwight at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.