Davis
Feminine · “son of David”
Davis is given to both — 1,038 girls and 32,076 boys since 1880. See Davis as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Davis is a son of David, and it is a Welsh surname before it is anything else: Davies and Davis are among the commonest family names in Wales, formed the ordinary way from a father's name. The Hebrew name at the root of it is generally read as beloved.
How old is the name Davis?
Davis first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Davis alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 800 people named Davis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Davis most popular?
Davis peaked in 1926, reaching #1883 nationally. Today it ranks #5099, 3,216 places below that high. See the whole 1926 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From David to Davis
The story of Davis
Wales fixed its surnames late and from a small stock of first names, which is why so many Welsh families share so few surnames: Jones, Williams, Davies, Evans and Thomas between them cover a large share of the country. Davis crossed to America with Welsh emigration and became one of the commonest American surnames too. Its use as a girls' first name is recent, part of a broad American movement of surnames to the front of the name for daughters.
Meaning
son of David; beloved
The surname is a patronymic from David, Hebrew for beloved. Wales adopted David enormously because of its patron saint, Dewi, which is why Davies and Davis are so common there.
How the name formed
- David
- Davies
- Davis
Related forms: Dafydd · Davies · David
Pronouncing Davis
DAY-vis
Two syllables, stress in front. There is no other reading in English.
Nicknames for Davis
Moderate
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
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 202236 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1883reached in 1926
- Change vs 2023
- +8.7%25 in 2025, from 23
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.
Davis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dafydd in Welsh — related form
- Davies in English — spelling variant
- David in Hebrew — related form
Daviss among us
people named Davis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 64,291 born in 2025 was named Davis
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 Celestial test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Davis's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Celestial climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Celestial's path sketches the road Davis is walking now.
Davis 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 Davis is headed
Davis is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Davis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Davis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries a documented Welsh patronymic and a very long line back to David.
- It works as a surname and a first name, which suits families using both.
- Every sound is ordinary English, so nobody stumbles.
- It is an extremely well-known surname, so it is often read as a last name written first.
- The name goes mainly to boys, so a girl called Davis will be filed wrongly at times.
- Davis and Davies are both used, so records within a family may differ.
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What they receive
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Davis
Feminine · #5099 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Daviss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Davis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Davis in 2025?
- Davis ranks #5099 among US girl names in 2025, with 25 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Davis?
- About 1 in every 64,291 US girls born in 2025 was named Davis — 25 in all.
- Will my child share the name Davis with classmates?
- Davis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Davis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Janette#5099 · Loraine#5099 · Delfina#5099 · Hali#5099 · Mecca#5099 · Zoi#5099 · Afia#5099 · Emelie#5099
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Davis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Davis and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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