Dusten
Of Anglo-Saxon origin, signifying "from the dusty settlement".
Name Census estimates that about 1,322 living Americans carry the first name Dusten. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dusten today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dusten births was 1985 (66 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dusten. 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
1.3K
~ 1 in 259,270 Americans
Peak year
1985
66 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,256
Tracked since 1969
Census
Dusten in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,095 people with the first name Dusten, which placed it at #11,632 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
#11,632
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,095 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dusten
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dusten is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.1%) and Hispanic (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 Dusten 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 Dusten at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.4% · 968
- Two or more races4.1% · 45
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 41
- Black or African American1.8% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 9
Popularity
Dusten: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dusten from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 541 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dusten 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 Dusten during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dustens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. Texas, Ohio, California recorded the most babies named Dusten, while New York, Michigan, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dusten
The name Dusten has its linguistic roots in the old Germanic languages, particularly the Proto-Germanic word "dust" which meant "dust" or "powder". It likely emerged as a given name during the early medieval period, perhaps as a descriptive name for someone who lived or worked in a dusty environment.
In its earliest recorded forms, the name was spelled variants like "Dustin" or "Dustyn". These spellings can be found in some ancient Germanic texts and records from the 6th to 8th centuries AD, primarily in regions that are now parts of Germany and the Netherlands.
One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Dustin of Trier, a Frankish monk who lived in the late 7th century AD. He is sometimes referred to as Saint Dustin and was known for his philanthropic work in the Trier region of what is now western Germany.
In the 11th century, a Norwegian chieftain named Dusten Haraldsson is recorded as having led a group of Viking settlers to the coastal regions of what is now Scotland and northern England around 1050 AD.
During the Middle Ages, the name spread across Europe along with the various Germanic tribes and kingdoms. A notable bearer was Dusten von Katzenelnbogen, a German knight and military commander who fought in the Crusades in the early 13th century.
In England, one of the earliest recorded uses was Sir Dusten Fitzherbert, who served as a judge and legal scholar under King Henry III in the mid-13th century. He was instrumental in establishing some of the early common law principles still used today.
The Renaissance period saw further examples, such as the Italian artist Dusten Borri, born in Florence in 1512, who was renowned for his frescoes and religious paintings adorning churches across Tuscany.
People
Dusten + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dusten 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
Dusten: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dusten?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,322 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dusten 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 259,270 US residents.
Is Dusten a common name?
We classify Dusten as "Rare". It ranks above 91.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,374 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dusten most popular?
The single biggest year for Dusten was 1985, when 66 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dusten is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dusten in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,095 people with the name Dusten, or 0.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,632 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 Dusten 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 Dusten?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dusten leans strongly male. 1,079 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 13 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Dusten?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dusten is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.1%) and Hispanic (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 Dusten most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dusten in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.4% (968 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 Dusten in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dusten a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dusten 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 Dusten still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dusten 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 Dusten 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 called Dusten?
You can see how many Americans are named Dusten on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.