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Boy · Ancient Greek
Demetrius
Say it: deh-MEE-tree-us
Meaning
From Greek Demetrios, 'belonging to Demeter'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Became popular among African American families from the 1960s.
Its wave through time
Most used in the 1990s
In the United States
- 36,625 babies given this name since 1912
- At its height in 1991, about 1 in 1,900 boys
- 263 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- Ancient Greece800 BC to 146 BC
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
Ancient GreekGreekRussianBulgarianSerbianAfrican AmericanAmerican
The family of the name
Other spellings: Demetrios
| Greek | Dimitrios |
|---|---|
| Russian | Dmitri |
| Bulgarian | Dimitar |
| Serbian | Dimitrije |
| Italian | Demetrio |
| Spanish | Demetrio |
Famous bearers
- Demetrius I Poliorcetes, Macedonian king
- Saint Demetrius of Thessalonica
- Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Ancient Greek literature and history (Homer, Herodotus, Plutarch and others)
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- Medieval Slavic chronicles and charters
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.