Dean
A masculine English name meaning "church dignitary" or "head of a faculty".
Name Census estimates that about 140,847 living Americans carry the first name Dean. It sits at #142 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (98.5% of registrations). The average person named Dean today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dean births was 1961 (4,965 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dean. 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 Dean with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Dean is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,908 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
141K
~ 1 in 2,434 Americans
Peak year
1961
4,965 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#142
Tracked since 1880
Census
Dean in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 132,117 people with the first name Dean, which placed it at #427 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
#427
National first-name rank
People counted
132K
132,117 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
43.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dean
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dean is White at 85.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.5%) and Black (3.3%). 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 Dean 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 Dean at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.1% · 112,439
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 5,984
- Black or African American3.3% · 4,360
- Two or more races3.2% · 4,262
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 4,162
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 910
Gender
Gender distribution for Dean
Dean leans heavily male at 98.5% of total registrations, but 2,908 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Dean as a male name
- Ranked #142 in 2024
- 2,545 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1961 (4,931 births)
Dean as a female name
- Ranked #15,817 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1932 (79 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dean leans strongly male. 130,626 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 1,490 female bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Dean: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dean from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 42,807 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dean 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 Dean during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Deans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Dean, while Alaska, Delaware, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,670 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dean
The name Dean has its origins in the Old English word "dæge" which means "day" or "servant of the day". It was commonly used as a title for various minor monastic officials or servants in medieval times. The name has been around since the 8th century AD and was initially used as a nickname or surname before becoming a given name.
In the early Middle Ages, the name was particularly popular in England and Scotland. It was also used in France, where it was spelled as "Dien" or "Dyan". The name has Latin roots and is related to words like "diurnus" meaning "daily" and "dies" meaning "day".
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dean appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. It mentions a person named "Dene" in the year 676 AD.
Over the centuries, the name has been borne by several notable figures. One of the earliest was Dean Inge (1860-1954), a British priest, philosopher, and author who served as the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Another famous Dean was Dean Acheson (1893-1971), an American statesman who served as the United States Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953.
In the world of literature, the name is associated with Dean Koontz (born 1945), an American author known for his novels and short stories, many of which have been bestsellers. Dean Martin (1917-1995) was an iconic American singer, actor, and comedian who was part of the famous "Rat Pack" along with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
Dean Cain (born 1966) is an American actor best known for his role as Superman/Clark Kent in the TV series "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman". Dean Kamen (born 1951) is an American inventor and entrepreneur who created the Segway and several other innovative devices.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Dean
People
Dean + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dean 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
Dean: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dean?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 140,847 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dean 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 2,434 US residents.
Is Dean a common name?
We classify Dean as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 192,948 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dean most popular?
The single biggest year for Dean was 1961, when 4,965 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dean is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dean in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 132,117 people with the name Dean, or 43.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #427 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 Dean 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 Dean?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dean leans strongly male. 130,626 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 1,490 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Dean?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dean is White at 85.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.5%) and Black (3.3%). 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 Dean most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dean in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.1% (112,439 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 Dean in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dean a male name?
Yes, 98.5% of people registered as Dean 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 Dean still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dean 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 Dean 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 Dean?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.