Dennis

“Follower of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine” — Ancient Greek via Latin and Old French origin

Boy's name · #707 in the US (2025) · Heirloom

Dennis belongs to an older America first — it reached #16 back in 1949 — yet it still appears in today's records at #707. About 621,000 boys have carried it since 1880. In all that time it has never once missed a year of the national records. Denny is a short form of Dennis. Together with its spelling variant Denis (#1712), Dennis would rank around #599 with about 480 births last year — the newborns split about 80/20 between Dennis and Denis.

Around the world: about 1 in 690 boys in Norway (2025) · about 1 in 3,400 boys in England & Wales (2025) · about 1 in 5,300 boys in Canada (2024).

Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 34 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.

Famous Dennises

Dennis M. Ritchie — American computer scientist, co-inventor of the Unix operating system and the C programming language
Dennis Gabor — Nobel Prize-winning physicist and inventor of holography
Dennis Hopper — American actor and film director (1936–2010)
Dennis Bergkamp — Dutch association football player (born 1969)
Dennis Quaid — American actor

In stories & tradition

Dennis Creevey — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire · Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Dennis Tanner — Coronation Street
Dennis Whitaker — The Pitt

What Dennises become

Among 3,778 notable people named Dennis:

Sports figures appear 1.63× more often than among typical names — e.g. Dennis Bergkamp, Dutch association football player (born 1969).

Similar names: Denis · Larry · Denim · Roger · Chris · Curtis

Browse more boy names — popularity, trends and eras for 5,700+ American names, free.

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