Girl · Greek, through Latin and French
Denise
Say it: deh-NEEZ
Meaning
Feminine of Denis, from Greek Dionysios 'of Dionysus', the god's name.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Common in medieval England as Dionisia or Denis, faded, then returned from France and peaked in mid-20th-century America.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1960s
In the United States
- 374,033 babies given this name since 1882
- At its height in 1964, about 1 in 129 girls
- 306 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Dionisia, Denis, Dennet
| French | Denise |
|---|---|
| Latin | Dionysia |
| Italian | Dionisia |
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- Medieval European charters and records
- 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.