Dewitt
Masculine · “the white one”
Dewitt is Dutch for 'the white one' — a byname for someone fair-haired or pale — and it reached America with the Dutch settlement of the Hudson valley, where it became a first name as well as a surname.
How old is the name Dewitt?
Dewitt was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Dewitt alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 2,300 people named Dewitt are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dewitt most popular?
Dewitt peaked in 1893, reaching #258 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 11,750 places below that high. See the whole 1893 chart.
Where it comes from
From de witt to Dewitt
The story of Dewitt
Dutch settlement in New Netherland left a deep layer of Dutch surnames in New York and New Jersey, and several of them became given names in the American manner — a mother's family name carried forward as a son's first name. DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York and the driving force behind the Erie Canal, made the name widely known in the early nineteenth century, and it appears in the registers through that century, peaking around 1885.
Meaning
the white one, the fair-haired
From the Dutch de Witt, 'the white', a descriptive byname for someone with fair hair or a pale complexion. Dutch surnames formed from an article plus an adjective are common — de Vries, de Jong, de Groot — and this is one of the oldest of them.
How the name formed
- de witt
- De Witt
- Dewitt
Related forms: De Witt · DeWitt · Weiss
Pronouncing Dewitt
duh-WIT
Two syllables, stress on the second. Some families capitalize the W — DeWitt — which marks the Dutch article on the page.
Nicknames for Dewitt
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1921161 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #258reached in 1893
- Change vs 2021
- −37.5%5 in 2025, 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.
Dewitt in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- De Witt in Dutch — same name
- DeWitt in English — spelling variant
- Weiss in German — related form
Dewitts among us
people named Dewitt are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Dewitt
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Dewitt 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
Dewitt beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dewitt in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent and the Dutch surname pattern behind it is well documented.
- It records a specific and traceable piece of American colonial history.
- The end stress gives it a distinct rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- The internal capital is a genuine choice between two established spellings.
- It is strongly period-coded to the nineteenth century.
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Dewitt
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dewitts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Dewitt are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dewitt in 2025?
- Dewitt ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dewitt?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Dewitt — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dewitt with classmates?
- Dewitt will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dewitt
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008 · Solon#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dewitt? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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