Douglas

← Back to The Colonial Americas

Boy · Scottish Gaelic

Douglas

Say it: DUG-lus

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From a Scottish place and clan name, Gaelic dubh 'dark' and glas 'stream'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Used as a first name in Scotland and very popular in the US in the 1940s and 1950s.

Its wave through time

A fashion of the 1940s

In the United States

051018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1942per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 560,517 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1942, about 1 in 123 boys
  • 331 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  2. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

AmericanScottishEnglish

Famous bearers

  • Douglas MacArthur, American general

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
  • National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
  • 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.