Dulcie
Feminine · “sweet”
This name has turned into an English word for a sweetheart twice, in two different centuries. Medieval Dulcibella wore down into dowsabel, which Elizabethan poets used to mean a pretty girl. Three hundred years later Cervantes built Dulcinea out of the same Latin root, and English took that one as a common noun as well.
How old is the name Dulcie?
Dulcie first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Dulcie alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 700 people named Dulcie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dulcie most popular?
Dulcie peaked in 1889, reaching #657 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,260 places below that high. See the whole 1889 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dulcis to Dulcie
The story of Dulcie
Dulcis is one of those Latin words that stayed useful in every language it entered, and the names built on it followed the same path. Dulcia and Dulcibella were given in medieval England, and Dulcibella wore down in speech to Dowsabel, which by the sixteenth century had stopped being a name and become a word for a sweetheart — a name dissolved into the language. The second time was deliberate. Cervantes gave Don Quixote a lady he has never met and calls her Dulcinea del Toboso, coining the word from dulce, and English readers liked it well enough to keep it as a common noun. Dulcie is the plain English survivor of all of that.
Meaning
sweet
Latin dulcis, sweet — the word behind dulcet, dulcimer, and Spanish dulce. Dulcia was in use as a woman's name in medieval England and France, and Dulcie is its English form. There is no second reading and nothing contested about it.
How the name formed
- dulcis
- Dulcia
- Dulcibella
- Dulcie
Related forms: Dulce · Douce · Dolce · Dulce
Pronouncing Dulcie
DUL-see
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the u of dull. The Spanish Dulce is DOOL-seh, with a different vowel and a sounded final e, so the two names do not sound alike.
Nicknames for Dulcie
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 192033 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #657reached in 1889
- Change vs 2021
- +60.0%8 in 2025, 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.
Dulcie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dulce in Spanish — related form
- Douce in French — same name
- Dolce in Italian — related form
- Dulce in Portuguese — related form
Dulcies among us
people named Dulcie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Dulcie
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
Dulcie 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
Dulcie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dulcie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning in a word that is still current in four languages.
- Two syllables and nothing in the spelling that has to be explained.
- It is uncommon in English without being unfamiliar to Spanish speakers.
- It means sweet, which is a description a person has to live next to for a lifetime.
- Dulce is much commoner in Spanish-speaking families and will be assumed to be the intended spelling.
- It is strongly represented among the oldest generations, and reads as belonging to them.
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What they receive
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Dulcie
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dulcies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Dulcie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dulcie in 2025?
- Dulcie ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dulcie?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Dulcie — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dulcie with classmates?
- Dulcie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dulcie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dulcie? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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