Dewayne
A masculine given name from an Old English surname meaning "from the village".
Name Census estimates that about 21,505 living Americans carry the first name Dewayne. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dewayne today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dewayne births was 1962 (653 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dewayne. 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 Dewayne with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Dewayne is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 107 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
22K
~ 1 in 15,938 Americans
Peak year
1962
653 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,107
Tracked since 1912
Census
Dewayne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,085 people with the first name Dewayne, which placed it at #1,764 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
#1,764
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
17,085 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dewayne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dewayne is Black at 46.7%. The next largest groups are White (45.6%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Dewayne 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 Dewayne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.7% · 7,974
- White45.6% · 7,793
- Two or more races3.7% · 624
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 355
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 285
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 54
Gender
Gender distribution for Dewayne
Out of the 26,542 babies given the name Dewayne since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Dewayne as a male name
- Ranked #3,107 in 2024
- 39 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1962 (653 births)
Dewayne as a female name
- Ranked #12,315 in 1988
- 5 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1981 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dewayne appears almost entirely male. Of the 17,092 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Dewayne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dewayne from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 5,903 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
Dewayne 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 Dewayne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dewaynes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. Texas, California, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Dewayne, while North Dakota, Massachusetts, Utah recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 559 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dewayne
The name Dewayne is a modern English spelling variation of the French name Duane, which itself derives from the old French word "duen" meaning "leader" or "chief." The name can be traced back to the medieval Frankish region of what is now parts of France and Germany, likely emerging sometime around the 9th to 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of a similar spelling is found in the 12th century literary work "Roman de Rou" by the Norman poet Wace, where a character named "Duane" is mentioned. However, it is unclear if this was intended as a given name or a descriptive title.
The name Dewayne did not become more widely used until the 20th century, particularly in the United States. One of the earliest known individuals with this spelling was American baseball player Dewayne Wise, born in 1978, who played for several Major League Baseball teams including the Chicago White Sox.
Another notable bearer of the name was Dewayne Cherrington, an American businessman and technology executive who co-founded the software company Seibel Systems in 1993 and served as its CEO until its acquisition by Oracle Corporation in 2005.
In the world of entertainment, Dewayne Hendricks was an American actor and director who appeared in several television shows and films in the 1970s and 1980s, including roles in the popular series "Sanford and Son" and "What's Happening!!"
Dewayne Staats is a well-known American sportscaster who has worked as a play-by-play announcer for various professional baseball and basketball teams since the 1970s, including stints with the Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays, and Detroit Pistons.
Finally, Dewayne Jessie was an American playwright and screenwriter active in the late 20th century, best known for his work on the 1996 film "Set It Off" and the TV series "The PJs" in the early 2000s.
While the name Dewayne has gained more widespread use in recent decades, particularly in the United States, its origins can be traced back to the medieval Frankish regions and the old French word "duen," reflecting its historical connection to leadership and authority.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Dewayne
People
Dewayne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dewayne 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
Dewayne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dewayne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21,505 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dewayne 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 15,938 US residents.
Is Dewayne a common name?
We classify Dewayne as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26,542 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dewayne most popular?
The single biggest year for Dewayne was 1962, when 653 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dewayne is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dewayne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,085 people with the name Dewayne, or 5.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,764 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 Dewayne 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 Dewayne?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dewayne appears almost entirely male. Of the 17,092 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Dewayne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dewayne is Black at 46.7%. The next largest groups are White (45.6%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Dewayne most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Dewayne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.7% (7,974 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 Dewayne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dewayne a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Dewayne 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 Dewayne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dewayne 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 Dewayne 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 Dewayne?
See how many Americans are named Dewayne on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.