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Douglass

Boys' name

Variant of Douglas

Douglass has been given to 5,795 babies in the U.S. since 1883. 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 1970, with 137 recorded.

Babies named Douglass, 2024

1 in 478,000

Douglass over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Douglass: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Douglas

surname transfer

What Douglass means

Douglass is a variant of Douglas.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Douglass is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈdʌɡ.ləs/ for Douglass.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Douglass → Douglas. The family’s meaning is “black + stream”, recorded in English with the source elements dubh and glais.

Origin, language, and formation

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

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

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Douglas.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,769 boys were recorded with the name Douglass between 1883 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 137 in 1970; its best national rank was #575 in 1942.

In the United States, 26 girls were recorded with the name Douglass between 1921 and 1951. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1921; its best national rank was #4,383 in 1935.

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 Douglass?

Douglass had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 478,000
7 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 246,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
331,009 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Douglass 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 2024 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 331,009 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Douglass. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Douglasss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Douglass was born before 1957 — so the typical Douglass is around 68 today.

Median birth year
1957
About 68 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
19.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.1%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
3,719
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 19.0% of all recorded uses (1,098).

Is Douglass 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 1970 (137)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#575
1942

Spellings of Douglass

Douglass is not the most common spelling — Douglas is, with 99.0% against Douglass's 1.0%.

  • Douglas99.0%560,013
  • Douglass1.0%5,769

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 Douglass is used

Across 1910–2025, Douglass was most concentrated in Maryland — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 68,515 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Maryland1 in 25,000
  2. 2Pennsylvania1 in 25,000
  3. 3California1 in 50,000
  4. 4Michigan1 in 50,000
  5. 5New Jersey1 in 50,000
  6. 6New York1 in 50,000
  7. 7Ohio1 in 50,000
  8. 8Connecticut1 in 100,000

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. Douglass has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Douglass around the world

Where Douglass 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.

  • South Australia
    1947–1996
    #540
    in 1996

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Douglass

People whose public names include Douglass, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Douglass in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Douglass. Linked forms have their own page here.

DougDouglas

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Douglass 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
#575
1942
Peak year
1970
137 that year
First recorded
1883
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
5,769
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,383
1935
Peak year
1921
6 that year
First recorded
1921
Last recorded
1951
All-time count
26
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Douglass

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

DouglesDouglasCassDougDoulgasDougalsAbassDougaldDouglusDouaIlyassDougalBlassKassAnassThomassChassBassRass

Names with a curve like Douglass

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Douglass, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

LeighLesleyCurtissJameBartonLenVernellWoodyDwainDwaineArtisLindsay

Sibling names for Douglass

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 Douglass

Top names of 1970, Douglass's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1942Boys' names starting with D