Deema
Feminine · “Arabic "a lasting”
Arabic has a large vocabulary for rain, and Deema names one particular kind: a steady soaking rain from a cloud that carries no thunder and no lightning. A language that grew up in a dry country needed the distinction, and it put it into names.
How old is the name Deema?
Deema first appears in US birth records in 1988 — 37 years ago. The typical Deema is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Deema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Deema most popular?
Deema peaked in 2016, reaching #4157 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 3,334 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dīma to Deema
The story of Deema
Water vocabulary in Arabic is unusually fine-grained, and it feeds the name stock directly: Ghaith is rain that comes when it is needed; Mazen is a rain cloud; Rabab is a white cloud; Nada is dew, and by extension generosity; Wabl is a downpour. Classical poetry treats rain as the highest good, and to praise a patron as rain is the standard compliment. Naming a daughter for a quiet, persistent, life-giving rain is not a metaphor a reader has to construct — it is the ordinary sense of the word. The American figures for Deema peak in 2016, with Levantine and Gulf immigration.
Meaning
Arabic "a lasting, gentle rain"
From Arabic dīma, a rain that falls steadily and quietly, without thunder, lightning or wind — as against wabl, a heavy downpour, and ṭall, a light drizzle. The name is common across the Levant and the Gulf. Deema, Dima and Deemah are transliterations of the same word; the doubled ee marks the long vowel that plain Dima leaves ambiguous.
How the name formed
- dīma
- Deema
Related forms: ديمة · Dima · Deemah
Pronouncing Deema
DEE-mah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long ee. Dima with a single i is often read with a short vowel by English speakers, which is why the doubled spelling exists.
Nicknames for Deema
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
- 1988
- Most girls named
- 201635 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4157reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- −36.4%14 in 2025, from 22
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.
Deema in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- ديمة in Arabic — transliteration
- Dima in English — spelling variant
- Deemah in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Deemas among us
people named Deema are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Deema
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Deema
- #7491
- Deema on the 2025 chart
- #941
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Deema went to 14 girls in 2025, but Dema is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 941st most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,550 places above the chart.
- Deema14
- Dema5
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 114,805 for Deema itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Clancy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Deema's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Clancy climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Clancy's path sketches the road Deema is walking now.
Deema 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
Deema beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Deema in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, specific and unusually gentle.
- It is short, two syllables and easy for English speakers to say.
- Dee is an immediate short form.
- Dima and Deemah are competing transliterations.
- Dima is also a Russian familiar form of Dmitri, which is unrelated.
- It is rare in the United States and will need spelling out.
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What they receive
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Deema
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Deemas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Deema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Deema?
- Deema is the most-used spelling in US records — 14 of the 19 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Dema.
- How popular is the name Deema in 2025?
- Deema ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Deema?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Deema — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Deema with classmates?
- Deema will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Deema
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Deema? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Deema and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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