Name Awesome

Duke

#695 in 2025Boys' name

Leader

Duke has been given to 11,595 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #695 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2018, with 529 recorded.

Babies named Duke, 2025

1 in 8,500

Duke over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Duke: meaning, origin, and history

Leader

English

What Duke means

Duke means “leader”.

Origin, language, and formation

Duke is used in English. Its origins include English.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Duke is pronounced /duːk/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 11,595 boys were recorded with the name Duke between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 529 in 2018; its best national rank was #533 in 2018.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #633 in 2020 to #695 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #603 in 2015 to #695 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 Duke?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 8,500
390 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 4,380
0.02% of boys
Rank, 2025
#695
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
5,893 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Duke 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 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 1001%
School of 5006%

Put another way: gather 5,893 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Duke. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Dukes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Duke was born before 2012 — so the typical Duke is around 13 today.

Median birth year
2012
About 13 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
31.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
58.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
10,011
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 31.9% of all recorded uses (3,699).

Is Duke 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
+10
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−62
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−92
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.86×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
73.7%
Peak was 2018 (529)
Years since peak
7
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
15.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#533
2018

Spellings of Duke

Duke is not the most common spelling — Luke is, with 24.3% against Duke's 0.87%.

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 Duke is used

Across 2016–2025, Duke was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 358 boys, against 1 in 3,636 across all states with data. It was least common in Mississippi (1 in 25,000).

4279 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 358
  2. 2Utah1 in 1,408
  3. 3Iowa1 in 2,128
  4. 4Missouri1 in 2,273
  5. 5Colorado1 in 2,326
  6. 6Indiana1 in 2,500
  7. 7Minnesota1 in 2,500
  8. 8Ohio1 in 2,564

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.

Geographically, Duke is one of the more regionally concentrated names in the country — more concentrated than 99% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Duke around the world

Where Duke 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
    1996–2025
    #1,613
    in 2025
  • France
    2020–2020
    #6,506
    in 2020
  • Canada
    2001–2024
    #1,232
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1944–2013
    #317
    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.

Notable people named Duke

People whose public names include Duke, 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.

Duke by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#695
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 62
Best rank ever
#533
2018
Peak year
2018
529 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
11,595
Count in 2025
390

Names similar to Duke

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

LukeSasukeJohnlukeYusukeYasukeKeisukeSosukeJonlukeDaisukeRyosukeJukeKosukeBrukeYosukeDukensShunsukeKensukeEisukeJeanlukeYohsukeKyosukeKousukeYousukeRyunosuke

Names with a curve like Duke

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

BensonHankEmmittEdisonPrinceMajorValentinoLeightonDaxSamsonKingsleyGray

Sibling names for Duke

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 Duke

Top names of 2018, Duke's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2018Boys' names starting with DEnglish Boy NamesEnglish NamesMusical Names