Demetrious
Derived from the name Demetrius, meaning "follower of Demeter", the Greek goddess of fertility and agriculture.
Name Census estimates that about 1,725 living Americans carry the first name Demetrious. It is a predominantly male name (96.8% of registrations). The average person named Demetrious today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Demetrious births was 1991 (59 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Demetrious. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Demetrious is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 58 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 198,698 Americans
Peak year
1991
59 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,479
Tracked since 1947
Census
Demetrious in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,348 people with the first name Demetrious, which placed it at #10,033 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
#10,033
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,348 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
75.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Demetrious
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Demetrious is Black at 75.8%. The next largest groups are White (9.7%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Demetrious 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 Demetrious at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American75.8% · 1,022
- White9.7% · 131
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 95
- Two or more races6.6% · 89
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Demetrious
Demetrious leans heavily male at 96.8% of total registrations, but 58 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Demetrious as a male name
- Ranked #5,479 in 2024
- 17 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1991 (59 births)
Demetrious as a female name
- Ranked #12,889 in 1989
- 5 female births in 1989
- Peak: 1977 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Demetrious leans strongly male. 1,254 people counted with this name were male (92.6%), compared with 100 female bearers (7.4%).
Popularity
Demetrious: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Demetrious from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 410 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Demetrious 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 Demetrious during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Demetrious' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. Illinois, Florida, California recorded the most babies named Demetrious, while South Carolina, North Carolina, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Demetrious
Demetrious is a masculine given name of Greek origin, derived from the name Demetrius, which has its roots in the Greek word "dēmētēr," meaning "mother earth" or "earth goddess." The name gained prominence in ancient Greece and was associated with the goddess Demeter, who was revered as the goddess of agriculture, grain, and fertility.
The earliest known use of the name Demetrius dates back to the 4th century BCE, when it was borne by several prominent figures in Greek history. One of the most notable was Demetrius I Poliorcetes, a Macedonian king and one of the successors of Alexander the Great, who lived from 336 to 283 BCE.
In the Christian tradition, the name Demetrius is associated with a 3rd-century martyr and saint from Thessaloniki, Greece. Saint Demetrius was a Christian soldier who was martyred during the reign of Emperor Maximian in the late 3rd or early 4th century. His fame as a martyr and the miracles attributed to him led to the widespread use of the name throughout the Byzantine Empire.
Throughout the centuries, the name Demetrius, and its variant forms like Demetrious, have been borne by various notable individuals. One of the earliest was Demetrius Phalereus, an Athenian orator, philosopher, and statesman who lived from around 350 to 280 BCE.
In the Middle Ages, the name was popular among Eastern European nobility, particularly in Russia and Bulgaria. One of the most famous bearers was Demetrius I Pavlovich, the first Tsar of the Rurik dynasty, who reigned from 1605 to 1606.
During the Renaissance, the name gained popularity in Western Europe as well. Demetrio Calcondila, a Greek scholar and one of the most important figures in the revival of Greek learning in the West, lived from around 1423 to 1511.
In more recent times, the name has been borne by several notable figures, including Demetrius Vikelas, a Greek businessman and the first president of the International Olympic Committee, who lived from 1835 to 1908, and Demetrius Ypsilantis, a Greek revolutionary leader who played a significant role in the Greek War of Independence, born in 1793.
People
Demetrious + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Demetrious 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
Demetrious: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Demetrious?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,725 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Demetrious 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 198,698 US residents.
Is Demetrious a common name?
We classify Demetrious as "Rare". It ranks above 93.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,815 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Demetrious most popular?
The single biggest year for Demetrious was 1991, when 59 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Demetrious 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 Demetrious in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,348 people with the name Demetrious, or 0.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,033 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 Demetrious 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 Demetrious?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Demetrious leans strongly male. 1,254 people counted with this name were male (92.6%), compared with 100 female bearers (7.4%). 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 Demetrious?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Demetrious is Black at 75.8%. The next largest groups are White (9.7%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Demetrious most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Demetrious in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.8% (1,022 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 Demetrious in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Demetrious a male name?
Yes, 96.8% of people registered as Demetrious 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 Demetrious still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Demetrious 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 Demetrious 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 Demetrious?
Find out how many Americans are named Demetrious on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.