Doug
A masculine English name derived from the diminutive form of Douglas.
Name Census estimates that about 18,002 living Americans carry the first name Doug. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Doug today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Doug births was 1962 (1,843 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Doug. 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 Doug with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Doug have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 19,040 Americans
Peak year
1962
1,843 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2023 SSA rank
#7,301
Tracked since 1918
Census
Doug in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 50,323 people with the first name Doug, which placed it at #896 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
#896
National first-name rank
People counted
50K
50,323 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
92.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Doug
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doug is White at 92.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.9%) and Black (1.8%). 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 Doug 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 Doug at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White92.8% · 46,676
- Two or more races1.9% · 961
- Black or African American1.8% · 909
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 806
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 664
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 307
Gender
Gender distribution for Doug
Out of the 22,477 babies given the name Doug since 1880, 100.0% 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.
Doug as a male name
- Ranked #11,182 in 2023
- 6 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1962 (1,843 births)
Doug as a female name
- Ranked #7,301 in 1968
- 5 female births in 1968
- Peak: 1968 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Doug appears almost entirely male. Of the 50,315 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Doug: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Doug 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 11,900 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
Doug 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 Doug during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dougs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. California, Ohio, Michigan recorded the most babies named Doug, while Hawaii, Nevada, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 443 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Doug
The name Doug is a diminutive form of the Scottish name Douglas, which originated from the Celtic words "dubh" meaning "dark" and "glas" meaning "stream" or "water." It was initially a surname derived from a location in Lanarkshire, Scotland, where the River Douglas flows through the village of Douglas.
The earliest recorded use of the name Douglas dates back to the 12th century, with the first known bearer being a nobleman named William de Douglasdale. The Douglas family played a significant role in Scottish history, with several members holding prominent positions and titles, such as the Earl of Douglas and the Duke of Touraine.
One of the most notable figures in Scottish history with the name Douglas was Sir James Douglas, also known as the "Black Douglas" or the "Good Sir James" (c. 1286-1330). He was a close friend and ally of Robert the Bruce and played a crucial role in the Scottish Wars of Independence against England.
Another historically significant figure with the name was Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861), an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois and was a prominent figure in the years leading up to the American Civil War. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States in 1860, but lost to Abraham Lincoln.
In literature, the name Douglas appears in Sir Walter Scott's novel "Castle Dangerous," where it is used for the character of Sir John de Walton, also known as the "Douglas Knight." The novel is set in the late 14th century and explores the tensions between Scotland and England during that period.
Other notable individuals with the name Doug include Douglas Fairbanks Sr. (1883-1939), an American actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker who was one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), an American five-star general who played a prominent role in the Pacific Theater during World War II and later served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan during the post-war occupation.
While the name Doug is primarily associated with its Scottish origins, it has gained widespread popularity across various cultures and regions, becoming a common diminutive form of the name Douglas.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Doug
People
Doug + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Doug 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
Doug: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Doug?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 18,002 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Doug 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 19,040 US residents.
Is Doug a common name?
We classify Doug as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 22,477 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Doug most popular?
The single biggest year for Doug was 1962, when 1,843 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Doug is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Doug in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 50,323 people with the name Doug, or 16.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #896 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 Doug 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 Doug?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Doug appears almost entirely male. Of the 50,315 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Doug?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doug is White at 92.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.9%) and Black (1.8%). 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 Doug most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Doug in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.8% (46,676 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 Doug in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Doug a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Doug 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 Doug still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Doug 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 Doug 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 Doug?
See how many Americans are named Doug on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.