Doug
Masculine · “dark water”
Doug is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 22,468 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Doug is a Scottish river. Douglas is Gaelic for dark water, and it was the name of a stream before it was the name of one of the most formidable families in Scottish history.
How old is the name Doug?
Doug first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Doug alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 17,500 people named Doug are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Doug most popular?
Doug peaked in 1962, reaching #170 nationally. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dubh + glas to Doug
The story of Doug
The Douglas family took its name from lands on a Lanarkshire water and became one of the great powers of medieval Scotland, at times rivaling the crown. The surname crossed into given-name use — first in Scotland, then across the English-speaking world — and rose sharply in twentieth-century America. Doug followed as a name in its own right, registered from the 1940s and peaking in the early 1960s.
Meaning
dark water, black stream
Through Douglas, from the Scottish Gaelic dubh, 'dark' or 'black', and glas, 'water' or 'stream'. Rivers named for the color of their water are common across the Celtic-speaking world, and several Douglas Waters exist in Scotland and Ireland.
How the name formed
- dubh + glas
- Dubhghlas
- Douglas
- Doug
Related forms: Dùghlas · Douglas · Dougie
Pronouncing Doug
DUG
One syllable, rhyming with 'rug'. The ou is short despite the spelling, which is a Scottish inheritance.
Nicknames for Doug
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 19621,843 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #170reached in 1962
- Change vs 2017
- −14.3%6 in 2023, from 7
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.
Doug in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dùghlas in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Douglas in English — related form
- Dougie in English — spelling variant
Dougs among us
people named Doug 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
Doug has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Douglas stands behind it with a documented Scottish family history of real weight.
- The meaning is concrete and easy to picture.
- One syllable, blunt and never mispronounced by English speakers.
- The spelling does not obviously give the vowel, which non-English speakers find awkward.
- Given outright it stays informal, with nothing longer on the certificate.
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Doug
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Dougs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 17,500 people named Doug are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Doug in 2025?
- Doug is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Doug with classmates?
- Doug will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Doug? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Doug and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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