Dione
Feminine · “of Zeus”
Dione is given to both — 2,373 girls and 573 boys since 1880. See Dione as a boy nameSee other names given to both
There is a moon of Saturn called Dione, spotted in sixteen eighty-four by an astronomer who found four of them and named them after Louis the Fourteenth. The classical names came later, and this one belongs to a Titan who is the mother of Aphrodite in the older version of the story.
How old is the name Dione?
Dione first appears in US birth records in 1929 — 96 years ago. The typical Dione alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 2,200 people named Dione are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dione most popular?
Dione peaked in 1970, reaching #840 nationally. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Dione
Giovanni Cassini found four moons of Saturn from the Paris Observatory and called them the Sidera Lodoicea, the stars of Louis, after his employer. That did not survive. A century and a half later the astronomer John Herschel proposed naming Saturn's moons after Titans, the siblings of Kronos, and Dione is one of the results — an ice moon with a system of bright cliffs across one side. The name itself is far older, belonging to a goddess whom Homer names as Aphrodite's mother and whom later writers largely wrote out. The American record shows it given to both sexes.
Meaningscholars disagree
of Zeus
The Greek name looks like a feminine formed on the name of Zeus, which would make it something like the goddess. The derivation is likely and not universally accepted.
Pronouncing Dione
dee-OH-nee
Three syllables with the weight in the middle in the classical reading. Many American families use two, dee-OHN, following Dion.
Nicknames for Dione
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
- 1929
- Most girls named
- 1970161 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #840reached in 1970
- Change vs 2021
- +40.0%7 in 2023, from 5
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.
Dione in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dione in Greek — transliteration
Diones among us
people named Dione 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
Dione 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
- It carries a real classical figure and a real astronomical object.
- Every sound in it is manageable for an English speaker.
- It is genuinely uncommon while being entirely readable.
- The syllable count is genuinely unsettled between two and three.
- Dion and Dionne are close neighbors and will be written instead.
- The spelling is recorded for girls as well as boys in the United States.
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Dione
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Diones are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Dione are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dione in 2025?
- Dione is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Dione with classmates?
- Dione 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 Dione? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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