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Despina

#15,504 in 2025Girls' name

Form of Despoina

Despina has been given to 1,523 babies in the U.S. since 1914. In 2025 it ranked #15,504 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1976, with 36 recorded.

Babies named Despina, 2025

1 in 663,000

Despina over time, 1880–2025

Girls
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Despina: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Despoina

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Despina means

Despina is a form of Despoina.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Despina is used in Greek.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈðe.spi.na/ for Despina.

Origin, language, and formation

Despina is used in Italian.

Despina comes through Ancient Greek Δέσποινα.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Despoina.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Italian, Despina is pronounced /desˈpi.na/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,523 girls were recorded with the name Despina between 1914 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 36 in 1976; its best national rank was #1,963 in 1931.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #9,096 in 2020 to #15,504 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #11,134 in 2015 to #15,504 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Despina?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 321,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#15,504
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Despina sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 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 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Despina. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Despinas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Despina was born before 1976 — so the typical Despina is around 49 today.

Median birth year
1976
About 49 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
15.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
20.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,166
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 15.9% of all recorded uses (242).

Is Despina 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
−8,494
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−6,408
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−4,370
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.56×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
13.9%
Peak was 1976 (36)
Years since peak
49
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
30.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,963
1931

Spellings of Despina

Despina is not the most common spelling — Destiny is, with 87.7% against Despina's 0.88%.

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 Despina is used

Across 1910–2025, Despina was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 77,152 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 33,333
  2. 2Massachusetts1 in —
  3. 3New Jersey1 in —
  4. 4Ohio1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Despina has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Despina around the world

Where Despina ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2021
    #3,961
    in 2021
  • France
    1918–1965
    #1,879
    in 1965
  • Canada
    1991–2019
    #3,370
    in 2019
  • South Australia
    1944–2013
    #818
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Despina by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#15,504
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 6,408
Best rank ever
#1,963
1931
Peak year
1976
36 that year
First recorded
1914
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,523
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Despina

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

DestinaDestenyDeseraeDesaraeDelainaYasminaCarminaDesirayAvelinaDesereeDestinDesireaDestineMelainaCarlinaDeshawnMarlinaDestaniJasminaDestyniDesarayHelainaDestiniDessa

Sibling names for Despina

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

Explore around Despina

Top names of 1976, Despina's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1931Girls' names starting with DGreek Girl Names