Desiree
Feminine · “desired”
Desiree is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 83,563 girls against 198 boys since 1880.
Desiree comes from the French Désirée, and behind that a Latin name meaning simply "desired" — one of the plainest, most direct meanings a name can carry. It reached English speakers largely through France, and it has three unstressed syllables that end on a bright open sound, which is why it has always shortened easily to Desi or Dee. In the United States it has been in continuous use for well over a century.
How old is the name Desiree?
Desiree first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Desiree alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 80,500 people named Desiree are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Desiree most popular?
Desiree peaked in 1983, reaching #94 nationally. Today it ranks #1427, 1,333 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Desiree appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Desideratus to Desiree
The story of Desiree
The root is the Latin desideratus, "desired" — a name used by early Christians in Gaul and Italy, where it appears in the medieval record for both men and women. French carried it forward as Désiré and Désirée, and it was in that French shape that the name became widely known: Désirée Clary, born in Marseille in the eighteenth century, married Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte and became queen consort of Sweden and Norway, taking the regnal name Desideria. Annemarie Selinko's 1951 novel about her, and the film made from it a few years later, put the name in front of a large English-speaking audience. American records show Desiree in use since the early twentieth century, most often with the French accents dropped.
Meaning
desired, longed for
From Latin desiderata, the feminine of desideratus, "desired." The masculine French form is Désiré.
How the name formed
- Desideratus
- Desiderata
- Désiré
- Désirée
- Desiree
Related forms: Désirée · Desiderata · Desideria · Desideria · Deseada · Desirée
Pronouncing Desiree
DEZ-uh-ray
Also heard as dez-uh-RAY, with the stress thrown to the end, closer to the French. Both are widely accepted in American use, so it is worth deciding which one you will offer when introducing her.
Nicknames for Desiree
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
- 1910
- Most girls named
- 19922,760 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #94reached in 1983
- Change vs 2023
- −23.4%151 in 2025, from 197
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.
Desiree in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Désirée in French — spelling variant
- Desiderata in Latin — related form
- Desideria in Swedish — related form
- Desideria in Italian — related form
- Deseada in Spanish — related form
- Desirée in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Desirees among us
people named Desiree are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,644 born in 2025 was named Desiree
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Desiree
- #1427
- Desiree on the 2025 chart
- #681
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Desiree went to 151 girls in 2025, but Desire, Dezire and Deziree and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 286, which makes it the 681st most-given girls’ name of the year — 746 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 5,620 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 10,644 for Desiree 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 Colleen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Desiree's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Colleen climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Colleen's path sketches the road Desiree is walking now.
Desiree 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 Desiree is headed
Desiree 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.
Desiree beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Desiree in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled, transparent meaning — "desired" — with no competing readings to explain.
- A documented line running from Latin through French into English, unbroken for centuries.
- Several short forms already in real use: Desi, Dee, Des.
- Recognizable across French, Italian, Spanish, German and Swedish in closely related shapes.
- The French original is Désirée, with two accents. The accent-free American spelling is the standard one here, but expect occasional corrections from French speakers and occasional accents added by people trying to be helpful.
- Stress placement genuinely varies — DEZ-uh-ray and dez-uh-RAY are both common — so she will hear it said more than one way.
- The name is strongly represented among adults now in their thirties and forties, which gives it a distinct generational flavor while leaving it uncommon among children.
- "Desired" reads as a love word to some ears, and a few people will comment on it. It is a very old Christian name, and that context is easy to give.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Desiree 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 Desiree? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Desiree
Feminine · #1427 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Desirees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 80,500 people named Desiree are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Desiree?
- Desiree is the most-used spelling in US records — 151 of the 286 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Desire, Dezire, Deziree, Dezyre and Desyre.
- How popular is the name Desiree in 2025?
- Desiree ranks #1427 among US girl names in 2025, with 151 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Desiree?
- About 1 in every 10,644 US girls born in 2025 was named Desiree — 151 in all.
- Will my child share the name Desiree with classmates?
- Desiree will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Desiree
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Khadijah#1427 · Roslyn#1427 · Evalyn#1427 · Sana#1427 · Katerina#1427 · Aracely#1427 · Zarah#1427 · Camden#1427
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Desiree? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Desiree 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.
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