Dennis
Feminine · “of Dionysus”
Dennis is given to boys far more often — 621,000 boys against 2,692 girls since 1880. See Dennis as a boy name
Dennis is one of very few English names taken directly from a pagan god. Not filtered through a saint's biography or a place, but built on the god's own name — Dionysus, the god of wine and theater and losing control — and carried by bishops and schoolboys ever since without anyone remarking on it.
How old is the name Dennis?
Dennis first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Dennis alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 2,100 people named Dennis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dennis most popular?
Dennis peaked in 1943, reaching #952 nationally. See the whole 1943 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Dionysios to Dennis
The story of Dennis
Early Christians took Greek names as they found them, and a great many of them were theophoric — built on a god. Dionysios, Apollonios, Hermas, Demetrios and Olympias all came into the church attached to Olympian gods and stayed. Nobody appears to have found it a problem, partly because the names had long since become ordinary and partly because there were saints of each. Dennis is the English form, and the doubled n is an English decision: French writes Denis with one, and the two spellings have coexisted here since the Middle Ages.
Meaning
of Dionysus
The Greek Dionysios means belonging to Dionysus, and it was an ordinary Greek personal name before any Christian carried it. The god is not incidental to the name; he is its whole content.
How the name formed
- Dionysios
- Denis
- Dennis
Related forms: Denis · Dionigi · Dionisio · Denis · Dionizy
Pronouncing Dennis
DEN-iss
Two syllables with the weight at the front. French says duh-NEE with the final consonant silent, and Russian keeps the s.
Nicknames for Dennis
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
- 194772 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #952reached in 1943
- Change vs 2021
- −37.5%5 in 2024, from 8
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.
Dennis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Denis in French — same name
- Dionigi in Italian — same name
- Dionisio in Spanish — same name
- Denis in Russian — transliteration
- Dionizy in Polish — same name
Denniss among us
people named Dennis are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Dennis sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing.
- It has a form in French, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Polish.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- Den and Denny are established short forms with different registers.
- It is strongly associated with the middle of the twentieth century.
- One long-running comic strip has attached a particular boy to the name.
- Denis with one n is standard in France and will be written for you.
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Dennis
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Denniss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Dennis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dennis in 2025?
- Dennis is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Dennis with classmates?
- Dennis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
Dorothy#421 · Donna#1962 · Deborah#862 · Debra#4460 · Diane#2607 · Doris#2895 · Denise#1673 · Danielle#549
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dennis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dennis and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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