Damone
From French, meaning "companion" or possibly "lord" with a Hebrew root.
Name Census estimates that about 1,200 living Americans carry the first name Damone. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Damone today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Damone births was 1974 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Damone. 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.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 285,629 Americans
Peak year
1974
42 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,438
Tracked since 1959
Census
Damone in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 923 people with the first name Damone, which placed it at #13,172 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
#13,172
National first-name rank
People counted
923
923 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Damone
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damone is Black at 84.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.4%) and White (4.8%). 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 Damone 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 Damone at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.7% · 782
- Two or more races5.4% · 50
- White4.8% · 44
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 5
Popularity
Damone: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Damone from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 300 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
Damone 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 Damone during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Damones live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, New York, Michigan recorded the most babies named Damone, while Ohio, Michigan, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 51 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Damone
The name Damone has its origins in the Italian language and culture, with roots dating back to the Middle Ages. It is believed to be a variant of the name Damiano, which itself is derived from the Latin name Damianus.
Damianus was a name borne by several early Christian martyrs and saints, including Saint Damian of Pavia, who lived in the 7th century AD. The name is thought to be connected to the Latin word "dominus," meaning "lord" or "master," suggesting a connotation of authority or nobility.
In the 13th century, the name Damone appeared in historical records from the Italian city-states, particularly in Tuscany and the surrounding regions. One notable bearer of the name was Damone Buoninsegni, a Florentine statesman and diplomat who lived from 1211 to 1273.
During the Renaissance period, the name Damone gained further prominence in Italy. A famous example is Damone da Bergamo, a 15th-century humanist scholar and author who was born in Bergamo in 1407 and died in 1459.
In the realm of literature, the name Damone appears in the works of the Italian poet Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), who featured a character named Damone in his epic poem "Gerusalemme Liberata" (Jerusalem Delivered).
Another noteworthy figure named Damone was Damone Assini (1654-1734), an Italian architect and sculptor who worked in the Baroque style and is renowned for his contributions to the design of various churches and palaces in Rome.
In more recent times, the name Damone has continued to be used, albeit less frequently. One notable bearer was Damone Roberts (1925-2011), an American actor and singer who appeared in numerous films and television shows throughout his career.
While the name Damone may have originated in Italy, it has since been adopted and used in various cultures and regions around the world, though its roots remain firmly tied to its Italian heritage and the historical figures who have borne this distinctive name over the centuries.
People
Damone + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Damone 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
Damone: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Damone?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,200 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Damone 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 285,629 US residents.
Is Damone a common name?
We classify Damone as "Rare". It ranks above 91.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,259 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Damone most popular?
The single biggest year for Damone was 1974, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Damone is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Damone in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 923 people with the name Damone, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,172 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 Damone 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 Damone?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Damone leans strongly male. 871 people counted with this name were male (95.0%), compared with 46 female bearers (5.0%). 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 Damone?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damone is Black at 84.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.4%) and White (4.8%). 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 Damone most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Damone in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.7% (782 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 Damone in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Damone a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Damone in the SSA data are male. 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 Damone still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Damone 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 Damone 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 common is the name Damone?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.