Dua
An Arabic feminine name meaning "invocation" or "prayer".
Name Census estimates that about 1,243 living Americans carry the first name Dua. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dua today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dua births was 2024 (170 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dua. 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 Dua with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Dua is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 9 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 275,748 Americans
Peak year
2024
170 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,338
Tracked since 1993
Census
Dua in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 863 people with the first name Dua, which placed it at #13,850 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
#13,850
National first-name rank
People counted
863
863 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
71.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dua
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dua is Asian/Pacific Islander at 71.5%. The next largest groups are White (20.3%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Dua 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 Dua at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander71.5% · 617
- White20.3% · 175
- Two or more races2.7% · 23
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 22
- Black or African American2.3% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 6
Popularity
Dua: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dua from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 657 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dua 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 Dua during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Duas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. New York, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Dua, while North Carolina, Massachusetts, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 46 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dua
The name Dua has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, with roots dating back to the 7th century CE. In Arabic, the word "dua" means "invocation" or "supplication," reflecting its religious and spiritual significance within Islamic tradition.
Dua is believed to have been derived from the Arabic root word "da'a," which means "to call" or "to summon." This linguistic connection suggests that the name Dua was originally associated with the act of calling upon a higher power or invoking divine blessings.
Throughout Islamic history, the concept of dua (invocation) has held immense importance, as it represents the communication between an individual and God. Dua is frequently mentioned in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, and is considered a fundamental aspect of worship and seeking guidance.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Dua can be found in the 9th century CE, with Dua al-Muzaffar, a renowned Arab mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the development of trigonometry and the study of celestial movements.
In the 11th century, Dua al-Ghazi was a prominent military leader and ruler of the Seljuk Empire, known for his strategic prowess and victories against the Byzantine forces in Anatolia.
Another notable figure bearing the name Dua was Dua al-Khair, a 13th-century Sufi mystic and scholar from Persia (modern-day Iran). Her writings and teachings on Sufism, the mystical tradition within Islam, gained widespread recognition and influenced many subsequent generations of spiritual seekers.
During the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, Dua Pasha was a high-ranking official and military commander who played a crucial role in the expansion and consolidation of Ottoman power in various regions.
In more recent times, Dua Nayel, born in 1942, was a prominent Syrian poet and author whose works explored themes of love, identity, and socio-political issues. Her poetic contributions have left a lasting impact on contemporary Arabic literature.
While the name Dua has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic tradition, it has transcended cultural boundaries and gained popularity across various regions and communities worldwide, serving as a reminder of the universal human desire for spiritual connection and guidance.
People
Dua + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dua 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
Dua: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dua?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,243 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dua 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 275,748 US residents.
Is Dua a common name?
We classify Dua as "Rare". It ranks above 91.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,253 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dua most popular?
The single biggest year for Dua was 2024, when 170 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dua is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dua in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 863 people with the name Dua, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,850 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 Dua 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 Dua?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dua leans strongly female. 791 people counted with this name were female (91.7%), compared with 72 male bearers (8.3%). 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 Dua?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dua is Asian/Pacific Islander at 71.5%. The next largest groups are White (20.3%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Dua most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Dua in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.5% (617 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 Dua in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dua a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dua 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 Dua still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dua 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 Dua 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 are named Dua?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.