Deforest

Boys' name

Forest, through Forest

Deforest has been given to 667 babies in the U.S. since 1881. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1920, with 26 recorded.

Babies named Deforest, 2001

1 in 748,000

Deforest over time, 1880–2025

Boys

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Deforest: meaning, origin, and history

Forest, through Forest

surname transfer

What Deforest means

Deforest belongs to the name family reached through Deforest → Forest. Its meaning is “forest”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Rare French surname, from de (“from”) + forest.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: DeForest (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Deforest is used in English. Its origins include surname transfer.

Deforest is recorded as a surname transferred into given-name use.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Forest.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 667 boys were recorded with the name Deforest between 1881 and 2001. Its highest annual count was 26 in 1920; its best national rank was #610 in 1881.

How common is Deforest?

Deforest had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2001, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2001: 1 in 748,000; 5 of 3,742,181 births
Among boys only: 1 in 388,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2001: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 518,778 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Deforest sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2001 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 518,778 children born in 2001 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Deforest. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Deforests were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Deforest was born before 1929 — so the typical Deforest is around 96 today.

Median birth year: 1929; About 96 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 26.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 6.6%; Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950: 155; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 26.1% of all recorded uses (174).

Is Deforest rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1920 (26)
Years since peak: 105; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 19.2% average annual change
Best rank ever: #610; 1881

Spellings of Deforest

Deforest is not the most common spelling — Forest is, with 96.4% against Deforest's 3.6%.

Forest96.4%17,784
Deforest3.6%667

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Deforest is used

Across 1910–2025, Deforest was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 208,788 across all states with data. It was least common in Georgia (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1New York1 in 100,000
2Georgia1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Deforest has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Deforest by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #610; 1881
Peak year: 1920; 26 that year
First recorded: 1881
Last recorded: 2001
All-time count: 667
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Deforest

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Deforrest Harvest Priest Everest Honest Quest Marquest Orest Depriest West Forest Burnest Forrest Vernest Earnest Bernest Markiest Defonta Ahonest Ahnest Erenest Lapriest Finest Erniest

Sibling names for Deforest

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Norine Vina Mozelle Marcelle Oleta Syble Adella Mittie

For a brother

Junius Rupert Orin Otha Hilton Casimir Edd Noble

Explore around Deforest

Top names of 1920, Deforest's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1881 Boys' names starting with D