Damian
Masculine · “to tame”
Damian is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 109,920 boys against 336 girls since 1880.
Damian comes out of Greek and has been traveling ever since — through Latin, through the church calendar, into Spanish, Polish, Italian and English without ever needing much repair. Three syllables that start soft and end soft, with a stress on the first that makes the whole name easy to call across a yard. It has been in American records for over a century and has never gone quiet.
How old is the name Damian?
Damian first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Damian alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 107,000 people named Damian are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Damian most popular?
Damian peaked in 2013, reaching #98 nationally. Today it ranks #109, 11 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Where it comes from
From Damianos to Damian
The story of Damian
The name begins as Greek Damianos and passes into Latin as Damianus. Its spread through Europe owes almost everything to the twin physician saints Cosmas and Damian, venerated in both the Eastern and Western churches from late antiquity, who by tradition treated the poor without taking payment; churches, hospitals and guilds of doctors carried their names across the Mediterranean and northward. From there the name settled into local shapes — Damián in Spain and Latin America, Damiano in Italy, Damien in France, Damian in Poland, where it remains ordinary. It reached the United States along several of those roads at once, which is part of why it has stayed steady here rather than spiking and fading.
Meaning
to tame, to subdue (Greek)
The root is the Greek verb damazein. The same root, negated, gives adamas — 'untamable' — which is the ancestor of both 'adamant' and 'diamond'.
Cultural footprint
Damian Lillard (b. 1990) — NBA All-Star famous for "Dame Time"
Damian Lewis (b. 1971) — Homeland and Band of Brothers star
Damian Marley (b. 1978) — Bob Marley's Grammy-winning son
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Damianos
- Damianus
- Damien
- Damian
Related forms: Damián · Damien · Damiano · Damianos · Damian · Demyan
Pronouncing Damian
DAY-mee-un
That is the standard American reading. In Britain you will also hear DAM-ee-un with a short first syllable, and the Spanish Damián puts the stress at the end: dah-mee-AHN.
Nicknames for Damian
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 20143,882 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #98reached in 2013
- Change vs 2023
- −2.4%3,213 in 2025, from 3,293
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Damian in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Damián in Spanish — spelling variant
- Damien in French — spelling variant
- Damiano in Italian — same name
- Damianos in Greek — same name
- Damian in Polish — same name
- Demyan in Russian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Damians among us
people named Damian are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 532 born in 2025 was named Damian
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Roland test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Damian's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roland climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roland's path sketches the road Damian is walking now.
Damian sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Damian is headed
Damian should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Damian beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Damian in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works in English and Spanish with no change beyond an accent mark — one reason it holds up strongly in states with large Spanish-speaking populations.
- A documented line running from Greek through Latin to the modern European forms, unbroken for well over a thousand years.
- Spelled the way it sounds in American English, and short enough to write early in school.
- Has real short forms already in use — Dame, Dami — rather than ones a family would have to invent.
- Present in US records across a long, level stretch rather than one fashionable burst.
- Damian and Damien are both common, and people will guess wrong roughly half the time. Expect to spell it out on forms and to see the other version come back on mail.
- The 1976 film The Omen gave the name a horror association. It used the Damien spelling, and the connection has faded considerably with time, but older relatives may still make the joke once.
- Pronunciation shifts between DAY-mee-un, DAM-ee-un and Spanish dah-mee-AHN depending on who is speaking. Families who care which one sticks tend to say it clearly and often from the start.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Damian to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Damian? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Damian
Masculine · #109 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Damians are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 107,000 people named Damian are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Damian in 2025?
- Damian ranks #109 among US boy names in 2025, with 3,213 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Damian?
- About 1 in every 532 US boys born in 2025 was named Damian — 3,213 in all.
- Will my child share the name Damian with classmates?
- Damian will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Damian
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Xavier#108 · Easton#110 · Vincent#107 · River#111 · Dominic#106 · Nicholas#112 · Amir#105 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Damian? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Damian and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle