Dulce
Feminine · Latin roots · “Sweet”
Dulce is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 20,306 girls against 49 boys since 1880.
Dulce is the Spanish and Portuguese word for "sweet" used as a name, and it has been doing that job since the Middle Ages, when Iberian records show it in the forms Dolça and Dulcia. Cervantes reached for the same root when he invented Dulcinea del Toboso for Don Quixote. Two syllables, five letters, and a soft landing on the final -ce.
How old is the name Dulce?
Dulce first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Dulce alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 20,000 people named Dulce are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dulce most popular?
Dulce peaked in 2007, reaching #264 nationally. Today it ranks #770, 506 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Dulce appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From dulcis (Latin) to Dulce
The story of Dulce
The Latin adjective dulcis gave medieval Occitan and Catalan the personal name Dolça, and Castilian and Portuguese the form Dulce, which turns up in Iberian records from the twelfth century onward. In Catholic devotion it also traveled as part of a phrase rather than alone: Dulce Nombre de María, the Sweet Name of Mary, a title that kept the word in circulation as a baptismal name across Spain, Portugal and, later, Latin America. Cervantes drew on the same root at the start of the seventeenth century when he named Don Quixote's imagined lady Dulcinea. In the United States the name arrived with Spanish-speaking families and has been recorded here across many generations, with its strongest showing in California, Texas and Florida.
Meaning
Sweet
From Latin dulcis, "sweet" — the same root behind English words like dulcet.
How the name formed
- dulcisLatin
- Dolça / Dulciamedieval Catalan and Occitan
- DulceSpanish and Portuguese
- DulcieEnglish
Related forms: Dulce · Dulce · Dolça · Dulcie · Douce · Dolce
Pronouncing Dulce
DOOL-say
That is the Spanish and Portuguese pronunciation. English speakers who meet the name in writing often say DUL-see, closer to Dulcie; both are heard in the US, so it is worth deciding early which one your family will use.
Nicknames for Dulce
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
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 20071,285 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #264reached in 2007
- Change vs 2023
- −3.3%352 in 2025, from 364
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.
Dulce in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dulce in Spanish — same name
- Dulce in Portuguese — same name
- Dolça in Catalan — related form
- Dulcie in English — related form
- Douce in French — related form
- Dolce in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Dulces among us
people named Dulce are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,566 born in 2025 was named Dulce
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Bernadine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dulce's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bernadine climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bernadine's path sketches the road Dulce is walking now.
Dulce 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 Dulce is headed
Dulce should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Dulce beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dulce in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as the Spanish word is spelled, so anyone who reads Spanish gets it right on sight — no variant spellings to choose between.
- Works unchanged in Spanish and Portuguese, and sits beside close relatives in Catalan, French and English.
- Two syllables and five letters, short enough to write early and to fit on any form.
- A documented line back to Latin dulcis, with medieval Iberian records and a place in Cervantes.
- Established diminutives already in use — Dulci, Dul, Dulcita — rather than ones a family has to invent.
- The name is a common word for "sweet" in Spanish, and dulce de leche and dulces (candy) are everywhere. Bilingual classmates will make the connection; most children find it a fair trade, but it is not a name that stays abstract.
- Two live pronunciations, DOOL-say and DUL-see, mean some correcting over a lifetime — mostly in English-speaking settings where the Spanish vowels are not assumed.
- Outside California, Texas, Florida and other regions with large Spanish-speaking communities, she will likely be the only Dulce around, which cuts both ways: never a surname initial after her name, but a lot of first-time spellings over the phone.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Dulce to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Dulce
Feminine · Latin roots · #770 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dulces are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 20,000 people named Dulce are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dulce in 2025?
- Dulce ranks #770 among US girl names in 2025, with 352 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dulce?
- About 1 in every 4,566 US girls born in 2025 was named Dulce — 352 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dulce with classmates?
- Dulce will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dulce
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christina#770 · Maci#770 · Freyja#770 · Laylani#768 · Indy#768 · Malaya#774 · Azari#766 · Keziah#766
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dulce? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dulce and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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