Dow

Boys' name

Beloved, through Daw

Dow has been given to 1,091 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1962, with 26 recorded.

Babies named Dow, 2015

1 in 740,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Dow: meaning, origin, and history

Beloved, through Daw

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Dow means

Dow belongs to the name family reached through Dow → Daw → David. Its meaning is “beloved”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Variant of Daw from David or daw, and of Duff from Scottish Gaelic.

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Dow is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Daw and David.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,091 boys were recorded with the name Dow between 1880 and 2015. Its highest annual count was 26 in 1962; its best national rank was #667 in 1893.

How common is Dow?

Dow had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2015, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2015: 1 in 740,000; 5 of 3,701,574 births
Among boys only: 1 in 383,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2015: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 513,148 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Dow 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 2015 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 513,148 children born in 2015 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Dow. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Dows were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Dow was born before 1941 — so the typical Dow is around 84 today.

Median birth year: 1941; About 84 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 15.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 3.8%; Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950: 433; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 15.9% of all recorded uses (174).

Is Dow 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 1962 (26)
Years since peak: 63; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 20.9% average annual change
Best rank ever: #667; 1893

Where Dow is used

Across 1910–2025, Dow was most concentrated in Ohio — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,600,445 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Ohio1 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. Dow has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Dow 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: #667; 1893
Peak year: 1962; 26 that year
First recorded: 1880
Last recorded: 2015
All-time count: 1,091
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Dow

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

Shadow Dowell Doward Dowd Dowe Dowl Downing Downey Meadow

Sibling names for Dow

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

Carmel Tena Jeanetta Patrica Tana Treva Jonna Edie

For a brother

Greggory Mitch Berry Art Chet Toney Cornell Kris

Explore around Dow

Top names of 1962, Dow's peak year The 1960s in full Other names that peaked in 1893 Boys' names starting with D