Deontay
Deontay was given to 13 boys in 2025, #6,540 among boys’ names; 1,171 Americans have been recorded with it since 1979 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,140 Americans named Deontay and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 18 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Deontay by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Deontay mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Deontay is “a male given name originating as a coinage, of African-American usage, variant of Deonte.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Deontay?
#6,540 among boys’ names, 2025
Deontay fell from #4,753 in 2015 to #6,540 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 10.4 to 7.6 per million.
57 babies in 1996, the peak
Deontay peaked in 1996, when 57 boys were given it, #1,672 among boys’ names. The 13 births of 2025 are 23% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | #6,540 | 7.6 |
| 2024 | 8 | #9,199 | 4.6 |
| 2023 | 15 | #6,000 | 8.8 |
| 2022 | 8 | #9,187 | 4.6 |
| 2021 | 21 | #4,667 | 12.0 |
| 2020 | 18 | #5,076 | 10.4 |
| 2019 | 15 | #5,882 | 8.4 |
| 2018 | 21 | #4,635 | 11.6 |
| 2017 | 12 | #6,784 | 6.5 |
| 2016 | 12 | #6,819 | 6.3 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 20 | #4,753 | 10.4 |
| 2014 | 19 | #4,921 | 9.9 |
| 2013 | 17 | #5,223 | 9.0 |
| 2012 | 11 | #7,177 | 5.8 |
| 2011 | 26 | #3,913 | 13.7 |
| 2010 | 18 | #5,090 | 9.4 |
| 2009 | 29 | #3,653 | 14.6 |
| 2008 | 25 | #4,055 | 12.3 |
| 2007 | 36 | #3,146 | 17.3 |
| 2006 | 37 | #2,992 | 18.0 |
| 2005 | 26 | #3,636 | 13.0 |
| 2004 | 28 | #3,381 | 14.1 |
| 2003 | 38 | #2,625 | 19.2 |
| 2002 | 32 | #2,893 | 16.5 |
| 2001 | 39 | #2,493 | 20.1 |
| 2000 | 43 | #2,258 | 21.9 |
| 1999 | 41 | #2,236 | 21.4 |
| 1998 | 50 | #1,935 | 26.2 |
| 1997 | 57 | #1,706 | 30.2 |
| 1996 | 57 | #1,672 | 30.1 |
| 1995 | 44 | #1,920 | 23.1 |
| 1994 | 52 | #1,712 | 26.9 |
| 1993 | 34 | #2,257 | 17.3 |
| 1992 | 44 | #1,855 | 22.0 |
| 1991 | 33 | #2,192 | 16.3 |
| 1990 | 38 | #1,974 | 18.5 |
| 1989 | 29 | #2,303 | 14.5 |
| 1988 | 15 | #3,389 | 7.8 |
| 1987 | 14 | #3,377 | 7.5 |
| 1985 | 13 | #3,448 | 7.0 |
| 1984 | 12 | #3,510 | 6.6 |
| 1983 | 17 | #2,697 | 9.5 |
| 1982 | 9 | #4,316 | 5.0 |
| 1981 | 8 | #4,623 | 4.5 |
| 1980 | 9 | #4,224 | 5.0 |
| 1979 | 8 | #4,508 | 4.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Deontay a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Deontay has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Deontay: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Deontay, and how old are they?
1,140 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,171 Americans ever recorded as Deontay. The median Deontay alive today is 26 years old; half are between 18 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 748 people named Deontay (15 women and girls, 733 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,072 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 16 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 401 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 526 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 198 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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 8 names spelled alike, given to 16,476 babies since 1880, Deontay is the fourth most given (7.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 13 of their 128 babies (10%), again the fourth most given.
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 Deontay
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 Deontay and names like it
- Compare Deontay and DeonteBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sDeontay peaked in 1996.
- Michigan’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Deontay since 1910.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Deontay: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Deontay.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Deontay alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with DMost given first.