Dacia
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "from Dacia", a region in modern Romania.
Name Census estimates that about 2,520 living Americans carry the first name Dacia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dacia today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dacia births was 1977 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dacia. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Dacia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.5K
~ 1 in 136,014 Americans
Peak year
1977
104 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,761
Tracked since 1921
Census
Dacia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,704 people with the first name Dacia, which placed it at #6,053 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,053
National first-name rank
People counted
2.7K
2,704 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dacia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dacia is White at 48.5%. The next largest groups are Black (26.0%) and Hispanic (17.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dacia described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dacia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.5% · 1,312
- Black or African American26.0% · 702
- Hispanic or Latino17.3% · 469
- Two or more races5.7% · 153
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 46
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 22
Popularity
Dacia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dacia from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 761 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dacia by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dacia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dacias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. California, Texas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Dacia, while Pennsylvania, Oregon, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dacia
The given name Dacia has its origins in ancient Dacia, a region located in modern-day Romania and Moldova. The name is derived from the Dacian language, which was spoken by the Dacian people, an Indo-European ethnic group that inhabited the area during antiquity.
Dacia was a powerful kingdom that existed from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD. The Dacians were known for their fierce resistance against the Roman Empire, and their legendary king, Decebalus, led many battles against the Roman legions. The name Dacia was first mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman texts, such as the works of Strabo and Ptolemy.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Dacia can be found in the Roman historian Tacitus' work "Annals," where he mentions a Dacian princess named Dacia who was captured by the Romans during the Dacian Wars. Another notable historical figure with the name Dacia was a Christian martyr who lived in the 3rd century AD and was executed for her faith during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian.
During the Middle Ages, the name Dacia fell out of widespread use but was still occasionally given to female children in certain regions of Eastern Europe. In the 16th century, a noblewoman named Dacia Trajan was a prominent figure in the court of Prince Stephen the Great of Moldavia.
In the 19th century, the name Dacia experienced a revival, particularly in Romania, where it was seen as a symbol of national pride and cultural identity. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Dacia Trajan Sturdza (1896-1979), a Romanian aristocrat and philanthropist who dedicated her life to preserving Romania's cultural heritage.
Other notable individuals with the name Dacia include Dacia Maraini (born 1936), an Italian writer and feminist activist, and Dacia Patrick (born 1972), an American model and actress. While the name Dacia is not as common today as it once was, it remains a part of the cultural heritage of Romania and Moldova, reflecting the rich history and traditions of the region.
People
Dacia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dacia as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dacia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dacia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,520 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dacia going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 136,014 US residents.
Is Dacia a common name?
We classify Dacia as "Rare". It ranks above 94.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,712 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dacia most popular?
The single biggest year for Dacia was 1977, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dacia is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dacia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,704 people with the name Dacia, or 0.90 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,053 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dacia in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dacia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dacia appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,697 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dacia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dacia is White at 48.5%. The next largest groups are Black (26.0%) and Hispanic (17.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dacia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dacia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.5% (1,312 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dacia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dacia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dacia in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Dacia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dacia in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dacia can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Dacia?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.