Dashun
An invented masculine name with no clear etymological meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 510 living Americans carry the first name Dashun. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dashun today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dashun births was 1996 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dashun. 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
510
~ 1 in 672,067 Americans
Peak year
1996
28 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,089
Tracked since 1973
Census
Dashun in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 389 people with the first name Dashun, which placed it at #24,672 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
#24,672
National first-name rank
People counted
389
389 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
89.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dashun
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dashun is Black at 89.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.8%). 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 Dashun 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 Dashun at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American89.5% · 348
- Two or more races4.1% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 10
- White1.0% · 4
Popularity
Dashun: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dashun from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 185 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dashun 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 Dashun during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dashuns live
Origin
Meaning and history of Dashun
The name Dashun has its roots in the Sanskrit language, originating from the Indian subcontinent during the ancient Vedic period, which spanned from approximately 1500 to 500 BCE. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "dashana," meaning "burning" or "to burn," signifying a fiery or passionate nature.
One of the earliest known references to the name Dashun can be found in the ancient Hindu scripture, the Mahabharata. It is mentioned as the name of a warrior who fought bravely in the great battle of Kurukshetra, recounted in the epic poem. This historical mention dates back to around the 8th or 9th century BCE.
Over the centuries, the name Dashun has been borne by several notable individuals across various cultures and regions influenced by Sanskrit and Indian traditions. One such figure was Dashun Singh, a 16th-century Rajput warrior and ruler of the princely state of Jaipur in present-day Rajasthan, India. He lived from 1541 to 1597 and was known for his military prowess and strategic leadership during his reign.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Dashun Maharaj, a revered spiritual leader and guru who lived in the 17th century (1631-1690) in the Indian state of Maharashtra. He was a renowned Varkari saint and poet, renowned for his devotional compositions and teachings on the path of bhakti (devotion).
In the realm of literature, Dashun Chand was a celebrated 18th-century Urdu poet and writer from the Mughal Empire. Born in 1707 in Delhi, he is renowned for his contributions to the development of the Urdu language and his poetic works, which explored themes of love, spirituality, and human experience.
Crossing into the modern era, the name Dashun gained recognition through the life of Dashun Ravi, a pioneering Indian mathematician and astronomer who lived from 1892 to 1972. He made significant contributions to the field of celestial mechanics and is credited with developing a method for calculating the positions of planets and stars with greater accuracy.
While the name Dashun has its origins in Sanskrit and Indian traditions, it has transcended cultural boundaries and found resonance in various parts of the world, reflecting the rich tapestry of human diversity and the enduring influence of ancient civilizations on contemporary societies.
People
Dashun + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dashun 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
Dashun: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dashun?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 510 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dashun 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 672,067 US residents.
Is Dashun a common name?
We classify Dashun as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 521 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dashun most popular?
The single biggest year for Dashun was 1996, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dashun is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dashun in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 389 people with the name Dashun, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,672 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 Dashun 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 Dashun?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dashun leans strongly male. 367 people counted with this name were male (93.4%), compared with 26 female bearers (6.6%). 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 Dashun?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dashun is Black at 89.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.8%). 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 Dashun most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Dashun in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.5% (348 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 Dashun in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dashun a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dashun 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 Dashun still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dashun 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 Dashun 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 people have the name Dashun?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Dashun on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.