Denis

What Denis means

Variant of Dennis, meaning “follower of (the wine god) Dionysus”

spelling variant of Dennis || From Middle English Denis, from Old French saint's name Denis, brought to England by Normans; from Latin Dionysius, a masculine name literally meaning “follower of (the wine god) Dionysus”.

Source: Wiktionary, “Denis” (revision 92997705) and “Dennis” (revision 93670798), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Denis?

US: Falling: down from #1502 in 2015. England & Wales: Falling: down from #351 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1952, when 618 boys got the name (#277 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 17,980 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 3,399 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 6,547 baby boys in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in MD (0.26 per 1,000 boys), CO (0.22 per 1,000 boys), FL (0.13 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Denis is #1708 in the US and #484 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 94.1% of US babies named Denis were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

Wiktionary only lists the UK pronunciation so far.

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Dennis381 US · 81 E&W
• Deniz50 US · 35 E&W
• Danis11 US
• Denys9 US
• Denzo5 US
• Donis5 US
• Danas0 US · 3 E&W
• Dinis0 US · 3 E&W

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Denis

Boys

• Angel#67Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #67 vs #1,307 in 2025
• Damien#352Form of Damian, meaning “to tame”^*
• Gabriel#37Finnish, meaning “God is my strong man, God is my hero”^*
• Nicolas#177Variant of Nicholas, meaning “victory + people”^*
• Alexis#513“helper, defender”^*
• Andy#565Diminutive of Andrew, meaning “manly”^*

For a sister

• Angelina#347“a female resident of Los Angeles”^*
• Chloe#23“young green shoot”^*
• Allie#569Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #255 in 2015, #569 in 2025
• Arianna#234Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #56 in 2015, #234 in 2025
• Lilly#252Form of Lilian, possibly meaning “lily”^*
• Melanie#142“black, dark”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Greek, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Denis’s. Rank is US 2025.