Durwood
An English masculine name potentially derived from "duir" meaning "oak tree" and "wood".
Name Census estimates that about 978 living Americans carry the first name Durwood. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Durwood today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Durwood births was 1943 (72 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Durwood. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Durwood is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Durwoods were born before 1963.
People living today
978
~ 1 in 350,465 Americans
Peak year
1943
72 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
1997 SSA rank
#9,690
Tracked since 1908
Census
Durwood in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 965 people with the first name Durwood, which placed it at #12,766 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
#12,766
National first-name rank
People counted
965
965 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Durwood
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Durwood is White at 88.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Two or More Races (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 Durwood 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 Durwood at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.7% · 856
- Black or African American8.5% · 82
- Two or more races1.8% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 6
- Hispanic or Latino0.2% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 2
Popularity
Durwood: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Durwood from the 1900s through to the 1990s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 574 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Durwood 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 Durwood during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Durwoods live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. North Carolina, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Durwood, while Maine, Pennsylvania, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 84 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Durwood
The name Durwood has its origins in the Old English language, tracing back to the 7th century AD. It is a compound name, formed by combining the words "deor" meaning "deer" and "wudu" meaning "wood". The name Durwood would have initially referred to someone who lived near or worked in a wooded area inhabited by deer.
During the Anglo-Saxon period in England, names often had descriptive meanings related to nature, occupations, or personal characteristics. Durwood belongs to this category of names that describe a person's surroundings or environment.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Durwood can be found in the Domesday Book, a survey of land ownership commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. Here, the name is spelled "Derewyda", indicating its Old English origins.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Durwood was Durwood of Ely, a 12th-century monk and chronicler who lived in Ely, Cambridgeshire. His writings provide valuable insights into the daily life and customs of medieval England.
In the 14th century, Sir Durwood Beaumont was a notable knight and landowner in Leicestershire, England. He fought in the Hundred Years' War and is mentioned in several historical records from that period.
During the 16th century, Durwood Croft was a prominent merchant and trader in the city of Bristol, England. His business dealings and travels are documented in various maritime records and trade documents of the time.
In the 18th century, Durwood Jenkinson was a renowned explorer and cartographer who accompanied Captain James Cook on his voyages to the Pacific Ocean. His detailed maps and journals contributed significantly to the exploration and mapping of the region.
Another historical figure with the name Durwood was Durwood Fellowes, an English playwright and novelist who lived in the late 19th century. His works, including the novel "The Sovereign Hand", were popular during the Victorian era.
People
Durwood + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Durwood 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
Durwood: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Durwood?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 978 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Durwood 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 350,465 US residents.
Is Durwood a common name?
We classify Durwood as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,688 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Durwood most popular?
The single biggest year for Durwood was 1943, when 72 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Durwood is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Durwood in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 965 people with the name Durwood, or 0.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,766 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 Durwood 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 Durwood?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Durwood appears almost entirely male. Of the 965 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 Durwood?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Durwood is White at 88.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Two or More Races (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 Durwood most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Durwood in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.7% (856 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 Durwood in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Durwood a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Durwood 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 Durwood still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Durwood 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 Durwood 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 Durwood?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.