Douglas
Feminine · “the dark water”
Douglas is given to boys far more often — 560,013 boys against 2,073 girls since 1880. See Douglas as a boy name
The family that made this name did one thing that nobody has ever forgotten. A dying king asked that his heart be taken to Jerusalem; the knight who took it got as far as Spain, found himself surrounded, threw the casket ahead of him into the enemy and rode after it. The family arms have carried a crowned heart ever since.
How old is the name Douglas?
Douglas first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Douglas alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 1,500 people named Douglas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Douglas most popular?
Douglas peaked in 1942, reaching #1300 nationally. See the whole 1942 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dubh glas to Douglas
The story of Douglas
The tree is a separate and rather good story. The Douglas fir is not a fir. It is not a pine, a spruce or a hemlock either, though it has been classified as all four at different times, and it eventually had to be given a genus of its own — a name that translates as false hemlock, attached to a species name meaning yew-leaved. So the full botanical name of one of the most commercially important trees on earth means, roughly, the yew-leaved false hemlock, and the common name attaches to a Scottish plant collector who sent the seed home and was killed in Hawaii at thirty-five by a bull in a pit trap.
Meaning
the dark water
Two Gaelic elements, one meaning dark or black and one meaning a stream or water. Several watercourses in Scotland and Ireland carry the name, which is why the surname is territorial rather than descriptive of a person.
How the name formed
- dubh glas
- Douglas
Pronouncing Douglas
DUG-lus
Two syllables with the stress at the front and the second reduced. The spelling is unambiguous and the name is never mispronounced.
Nicknames for Douglas
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
- 1904
- Most girls named
- 195953 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1300reached in 1942
- Change vs 1994
- +20.0%6 in 2004, 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.
Douglass among us
people named Douglas 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
Douglas 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
- Doug is a short form that works in any register and at any age.
- It has been in continuous use for the whole length of the record.
- The meaning is concrete and easy to explain to a child.
- Its peak generation is far enough back to date the name to most ears.
- Douglass with two s's is a separate and significant spelling.
- The record holds girls as well, and the girl is much the smaller side.
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What they receive
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Douglas
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Douglass are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Douglas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Douglas in 2025?
- Douglas is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Douglas with classmates?
- Douglas 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 Douglas? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Douglas and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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