Destiny
Destiny was given to 458 girls in 2025, #635 among girls’ names; 152,289 Americans have been recorded with it since 1956 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 150,000 Americans named Destiny and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 19 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Destiny by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Destiny mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Destiny is “a female given name from English.”
From the noun destiny since the 1970s.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Destiny?
#635 among girls’ names, 2025
Destiny fell from #186 in 2015 to #635 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 1.0 to 0.28 per 1,000.
9,875 babies in 2000, the peak
Destiny peaked in 2000, when 9,875 babies were given it (9,850 girls, #24 among girls’ names). The 458 births of 2025 are 5% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 458 | #635 | 0.28 |
| 2024 | 643 | #481 | 0.40 |
| 2023 | 708 | #438 | 0.44 |
| 2022 | 798 | #391 | 0.49 |
| 2021 | 801 | #392 | 0.49 |
| 2020 | 891 | #347 | 0.55 |
| 2019 | 1,052 | #309 | 0.63 |
| 2018 | 1,206 | #275 | 0.71 |
| 2017 | 1,389 | #226 | 0.80 |
| 2016 | 1,603 | #203 | 0.90 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,733 | #186 | 1.0 |
| 2014 | 2,077 | #156 | 1.2 |
| 2013 | 2,314 | #138 | 1.3 |
| 2012 | 2,720 | #113 | 1.5 |
| 2011 | 3,273 | #90 | 1.9 |
| 2010 | 3,737 | #71 | 2.1 |
| 2009 | 4,617 | #56 | 2.5 |
| 2008 | 5,320 | #47 | 2.8 |
| 2007 | 5,742 | #41 | 3.0 |
| 2006 | 6,313 | #36 | 3.3 |
| 2005 | 6,894 | #32 | 3.7 |
| 2004 | 6,546 | #38 | 3.6 |
| 2003 | 6,977 | #37 | 3.8 |
| 2002 | 7,804 | #34 | 4.3 |
| 2001 | 9,752 | #22 | 5.4 |
| 2000 | 9,850 | #24 | 5.4 |
| 1999 | 9,172 | #28 | 5.2 |
| 1998 | 8,155 | #34 | 4.6 |
| 1997 | 6,727 | #42 | 3.9 |
| 1996 | 5,856 | #56 | 3.3 |
| 1995 | 5,380 | #66 | 3.1 |
| 1994 | 4,089 | #86 | 2.3 |
| 1993 | 2,942 | #111 | 1.6 |
| 1992 | 2,610 | #130 | 1.4 |
| 1991 | 1,899 | #156 | 1.0 |
| 1990 | 1,408 | #202 | 0.74 |
| 1989 | 1,153 | #238 | 0.63 |
| 1988 | 944 | #268 | 0.53 |
| 1987 | 811 | #299 | 0.47 |
| 1986 | 606 | #382 | 0.35 |
| 1985 | 572 | #391 | 0.33 |
| 1984 | 564 | #390 | 0.33 |
| 1983 | 516 | #421 | 0.31 |
| 1982 | 469 | #454 | 0.28 |
| 1981 | 467 | #458 | 0.28 |
| 1980 | 440 | #478 | 0.27 |
| 1979 | 384 | #514 | 0.24 |
| 1978 | 324 | #547 | 0.21 |
| 1977 | 211 | #728 | 0.14 |
| 1976 | 185 | #775 | 0.13 |
| 1975 | 161 | #836 | 0.11 |
| 1974 | 117 | #1,027 | 0.08 |
| 1973 | 86 | #1,227 | 0.06 |
| 1972 | 58 | #1,580 | 0.04 |
| 1971 | 49 | #1,810 | 0.03 |
| 1970 | 37 | #2,173 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 24 | #2,721 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 26 | #2,441 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 13 | #3,708 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 20 | #2,773 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 13 | #3,593 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 13 | #3,739 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 11 | #4,076 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 8 | #4,971 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 9 | #4,533 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 6 | #5,730 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 5 | #6,294 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,182 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Destiny a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Destiny has been given almost only to girls: 526 boys in 68 years of records.
Girls and boys named Destiny: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Destiny, and how old are they?
150,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 152,289 Americans ever recorded as Destiny. The median Destiny alive today is 24 years old; half are between 19 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 119,198 people named Destiny (118,723 women and girls, 475 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 146,605 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 48 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,050 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 29,800 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 103,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 15,600 |
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).
Where are babies named Destiny born?
The states with the most babies named Destiny are Texas, California and Florida, with 42% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 73 | #458 | 1.2× |
| California | 59 | #550 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 41 | #459 | 1.1× |
| New York | 23 | #708 | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 19 | #410 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 18 | #585 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 15 | #685 | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 12 | #763 | 0.9× |
| Indiana | 12 | #555 | 0.8× |
| Washington | 12 | #551 | 0.6× |
Where Destiny is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Destiny is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1956 it was given 1.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Destiny with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 193,916 babies since 1880, Destiny is the most given (79% of them). In 2025 it was given to 458 of their 551 babies (83%), again the 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 Destiny
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 Destiny and names like it
- Compare Destiny and DestineeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sDestiny peaked in 2000.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Destiny since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Destiny: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Destiny.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Destiny alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with DMost given first.