Duffy
Of Irish origin, likely referring to someone with dark complexion or hair.
Name Census estimates that about 452 living Americans carry the first name Duffy. It is a predominantly male name (97.5% of registrations). The average person named Duffy today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Duffy births was 1961 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Duffy. 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
452
~ 1 in 758,306 Americans
Peak year
1961
26 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2012 SSA rank
#7,323
Tracked since 1915
Census
Duffy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 576 people with the first name Duffy, which placed it at #18,647 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
#18,647
National first-name rank
People counted
576
576 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Duffy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Duffy is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.2%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Duffy 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 Duffy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.7% · 482
- Black or African American5.2% · 30
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 19
- Two or more races2.8% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Duffy
Duffy leans heavily male at 97.5% of total registrations, but 16 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Duffy as a male name
- Ranked #12,790 in 2012
- 5 male births in 2012
- Peak: 1969 (22 births)
Duffy as a female name
- Ranked #7,323 in 1970
- 6 female births in 1970
- Peak: 1970 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Duffy leans strongly male. 480 people counted with this name were male (84.5%), compared with 88 female bearers (15.5%).
Popularity
Duffy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Duffy from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 141 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Duffy 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 Duffy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Duffys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Duffy
Duffy is a given name with origins that can be traced back to the Gaelic language and culture in Ireland. It is believed to have derived from the Irish surname Ó Dubhthaigh, which means "descendant of Dubhthach," where "dubh" means "black" and "thach" is a personal name meaning "having fertile land."
The name Duffy first appeared in ancient Irish genealogical records and manuscripts dating back to the 10th century. It was primarily used as a surname by families residing in the counties of Monaghan, Cavan, and Louth in the northern part of Ireland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Duffy as a given name can be found in the 12th-century Irish text "The Annals of Ulster," which mentions a man named Duffy O'Mulholland. However, it was not until the late 16th and 17th centuries that the name gained wider popularity as a first name.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Duffy. One of the most famous was Patrick Duffy (1816-1885), an Irish Catholic prelate who served as the Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn in Australia from 1862 until his death.
Another prominent figure was Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903), an Irish-Australian politician, novelist, and journalist who played a crucial role in the Australian colony of Victoria's struggle for self-governance and later became the 8th Premier of Victoria in 1871.
In the realm of literature, the name Duffy is associated with Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955), a renowned Scottish poet and playwright who served as the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2019.
In the world of music, Duffy (born 1984) is the stage name of Welsh singer-songwriter Aimee Anne Duffy, who rose to fame in 2008 with her debut album "Rockferry" and won three BRIT Awards and a Grammy Award.
Finally, in sports, Duffy Daugherty (1915-1987) was an American football player and coach who led Michigan State University's football team to two national championships in the 1960s and is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the program.
People
Duffy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Duffy 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
Duffy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Duffy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 452 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Duffy 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 758,306 US residents.
Is Duffy a common name?
We classify Duffy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 643 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Duffy most popular?
The single biggest year for Duffy was 1961, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Duffy is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Duffy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 576 people with the name Duffy, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,647 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 Duffy 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 Duffy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Duffy leans strongly male. 480 people counted with this name were male (84.5%), compared with 88 female bearers (15.5%). 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 Duffy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Duffy is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.2%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Duffy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Duffy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.7% (482 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 Duffy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Duffy a male name?
Yes, 97.5% of people registered as Duffy 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 Duffy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Duffy 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 Duffy 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 common is the name Duffy?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.