Find out how popular the last name Denise is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Denise.

Denise, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Denise surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Denise in America

Denise is the 30946th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Denise surname appeared 751 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Denise.

We can also compare 2010 data for Denise to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Denise

The surname Denise originated in France and can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the French personal name Denise, which is the feminine form of the Latin name Dionysius. The name Dionysius comes from the Greek Dionysios, meaning "son of Dionysos" or "follower of the god Dionysos."

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Denise can be found in the Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Père de Chartres, a medieval cartulary from the 12th century. In this document, a certain Giraldus Denise is mentioned as a witness to a land transaction in the region of Chartres, France.

During the 13th century, the surname Denise appears in various records from the Île-de-France region, particularly in and around Paris. For example, a Simon Denise is listed in the Livre des Bourgeois de Paris, a register of the citizens of Paris from the year 1292.

In the 14th century, the Denise surname can be found in records from the Normandy region of France. One notable example is Guillaume Denise, a merchant from Rouen who is mentioned in a trade agreement with English merchants in 1348.

Over the centuries, the surname Denise has been associated with several notable individuals, including:

1. Pierre Denise (c. 1470-1530), a French Renaissance humanist and poet from Angers.
2. Jacques Denise (1567-1639), a French theologian and philosopher who served as the rector of the University of Paris.
3. Nicolas Denise (1625-1693), a French Jesuit missionary who traveled to Canada and documented the customs of the Huron and Iroquois tribes.
4. Louis Denise (1695-1771), a French architect and engineer who worked on the construction of the Petit Trianon palace at Versailles.
5. Jean-Baptiste Denise (1782-1856), a French military officer who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and later served as a deputy in the French parliament.

The surname Denise has also been associated with various place names in France, such as Denise-en-Gâtine (a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department) and Denise-sous-Doué (a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department). These place names likely originated from individuals bearing the surname Denise who lived or held land in those areas.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Denise

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Denise.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Denise was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Denise has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Denise was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Denise, please contact us.

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