Denys
Denys was last recorded in 2025, when 9 babies were given it; 641 Americans have been recorded with it between 1944 and 2025 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Denys by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Denys mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Denys is “a male given name from Ancient Greek, an alternative spelling of Denis”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Denys?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #15,469, in 2010; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
30 babies in 1988, the peak
Denys peaked in 1988, when 30 babies were given it (19 girls, #4,523 among girls’ names). The 9 births of 2025 are 30% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 9 | #8,417 | |
| 2024 | under 5 | 9 | #8,483 | |
| 2023 | under 5 | 9 | #8,413 | |
| 2021 | under 5 | 7 | #9,977 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 5 | #12,493 | |
| 2018 | under 5 | 5 | #12,629 | |
| 2017 | under 5 | 9 | #8,307 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 9 | #8,301 | |
| 2014 | under 5 | 5 | #12,527 | |
| 2013 | under 5 | 6 | #11,068 |
Every recorded year (63)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | under 5 | 7 | #9,884 | |
| 2010 | 6 | #15,469 | 9 | #8,303 |
| 2009 | under 5 | 13 | #6,516 | |
| 2008 | under 5 | 7 | #10,124 | |
| 2007 | 8 | #12,987 | under 5 | |
| 2006 | 10 | #10,796 | 9 | #8,160 |
| 2005 | under 5 | 9 | #7,787 | |
| 2004 | 6 | #14,629 | under 5 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 5 | #11,303 | |
| 2002 | 6 | #14,057 | under 5 | |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,327 | 5 | #10,980 |
| 2000 | 13 | #7,696 | 6 | #9,381 |
| 1998 | 6 | #12,872 | 6 | #8,745 |
| 1997 | 7 | #11,147 | 7 | #7,471 |
| 1996 | 5 | #14,078 | under 5 | |
| 1995 | 11 | #7,647 | under 5 | |
| 1994 | 8 | #9,796 | under 5 | |
| 1993 | 9 | #8,912 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | 11 | #7,648 | 5 | #8,724 |
| 1991 | 11 | #7,534 | under 5 | |
| 1990 | 7 | #10,499 | 5 | #8,433 |
| 1989 | 15 | #5,615 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 19 | #4,523 | 11 | #4,236 |
| 1987 | 12 | #6,018 | 7 | #5,632 |
| 1986 | 6 | #9,848 | 6 | #6,118 |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,573 | under 5 | |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,319 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | 5 | #10,898 | under 5 | |
| 1981 | 15 | #4,785 | 5 | #6,512 |
| 1980 | 9 | #6,922 | 5 | #6,486 |
| 1978 | under 5 | 5 | #6,034 | |
| 1977 | 10 | #5,982 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | under 5 | 5 | #5,811 | |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,652 | under 5 | |
| 1974 | 14 | #4,286 | under 5 | |
| 1973 | 15 | #4,026 | under 5 | |
| 1972 | 13 | #4,354 | under 5 | |
| 1971 | 17 | #3,685 | under 5 | |
| 1970 | 10 | #5,140 | under 5 | |
| 1969 | 13 | #4,015 | under 5 | |
| 1968 | 15 | #3,486 | under 5 | |
| 1967 | 14 | #3,515 | under 5 | |
| 1965 | 5 | #6,763 | under 5 | |
| 1964 | 8 | #5,120 | under 5 | |
| 1959 | 10 | #4,093 | under 5 | |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,559 | under 5 | |
| 1952 | 8 | #4,204 | under 5 | |
| 1951 | 7 | #4,473 | under 5 | |
| 1950 | 9 | #3,739 | under 5 | |
| 1949 | 5 | #5,419 | under 5 | |
| 1948 | 7 | #4,288 | under 5 | |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,494 | under 5 | |
| 1944 | under 5 | 5 | #3,542 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Denys a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 641 Americans recorded as Denys, 66% are girls and 34% boys. In 2025 it went to 9 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Denys: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Denys, and how old are they?
An estimated 601 Americans named Denys and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 37 years old and half are between 22 and 52. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,860 people named Denys (520 women and girls, 1,340 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 575 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 728 babies since 1880, Denys is the most given (88% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Denys
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Denys and names like it
- Compare Denys and DenissBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sDenys peaked in 1988.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Denys since 1910.
- The top names of 1988The year the most babies were named Denys.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Denys alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with DMost given first.