Dessa
A feminine name of Swedish origin meaning "this one".
Name Census estimates that about 994 living Americans carry the first name Dessa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dessa today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dessa births was 2001 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dessa. 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
994
~ 1 in 344,823 Americans
Peak year
2001
31 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,307
Tracked since 1880
Census
Dessa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,018 people with the first name Dessa, which placed it at #12,275 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
#12,275
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,018 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dessa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dessa is White at 73.6%. The next largest groups are Black (10.8%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Dessa 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 Dessa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.6% · 749
- Black or African American10.8% · 110
- Two or more races6.1% · 62
- Hispanic or Latino5.7% · 58
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 24
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 15
Popularity
Dessa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dessa from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 183 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Dessa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dessa 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 Dessa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dessas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Alabama, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Dessa, while Texas, California, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dessa
The name Dessa is believed to have originated from the Old English or Anglo-Saxon word "dæge" or "dæg", which means "day". It was initially used as a masculine name, but over time, it also became a feminine name. The name Dessa is thought to have been derived from the Old English word "dægdæg", which means "daybreak" or "dawn".
In the 8th century, the name Dessa appeared in the Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, which is a collection of Anglo-Saxon charters and records. The earliest recorded example of the name Dessa is found in this manuscript, where it referred to a landowner in the kingdom of Mercia, a region that covered parts of central England.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Dessa was Saint Dessa, an Irish nun and abbess who lived in the 6th century. She founded a monastery in County Waterford, Ireland, and her feast day is celebrated on September 25th in the Catholic Church.
In the 13th century, Dessa was the name of a prominent noblewoman in the Kingdom of Scotland. She was the daughter of King Alexander II and was known for her charitable works and her support for religious institutions.
During the Renaissance period, Dessa was the name of a renowned Italian poet and humanist. Dessa Isidori, born in 1452 in Florence, was celebrated for her literary works and her contributions to the cultural and intellectual life of the city.
In the 19th century, Dessa was the name of a notable American suffragist and women's rights activist. Dessa Woodbury, born in 1838 in Massachusetts, was a prominent figure in the fight for women's suffrage and played a significant role in the women's rights movement in the United States.
Another historical figure with the name Dessa was Dessa Trevilian, a British artist and sculptor who lived from 1858 to 1923. She was known for her works in marble and bronze and was a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
People
Dessa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dessa 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
Dessa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dessa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 994 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dessa 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 344,823 US residents.
Is Dessa a common name?
We classify Dessa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,801 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dessa most popular?
The single biggest year for Dessa was 2001, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dessa is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dessa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,018 people with the name Dessa, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,275 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 Dessa 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 Dessa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dessa appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,018 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Dessa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dessa is White at 73.6%. The next largest groups are Black (10.8%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Dessa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dessa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.6% (749 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 Dessa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dessa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dessa 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 Dessa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dessa 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 Dessa 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 Dessa?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.