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Dwain

Boys' name

Variant of Duane

Dwain has been given to 7,581 babies in the U.S. since 1913. 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 1959, with 258 recorded.

Babies named Dwain, 2024

1 in 557,000

Dwain over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Dwain: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Duane

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Dwain means

Dwain is a variant of Duane.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Dwain is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈdweɪn/ for Dwain.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Dwain → Duane. The family’s meaning is “black, dark”, recorded in English with the source elements dubh.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Duane.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,581 boys were recorded with the name Dwain between 1913 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 258 in 1959; its best national rank was #488 in 1959.

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 Dwain?

Dwain 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 557,000
6 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 287,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
386,177 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Dwain 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 386,177 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Dwain. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Dwains were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Dwain was born before 1956 — so the typical Dwain is around 69 today.

Median birth year
1956
About 69 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
22.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.3%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
4,799
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 22.4% of all recorded uses (1,698).

Is Dwain 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 1959 (258)
Years since peak
66
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
40.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#488
1959

Spellings of Dwain

Dwain is not the most common spelling — Edwin is, with 27.6% against Dwain's 0.85%.

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 Dwain is used

Across 1910–2025, Dwain was most concentrated in Nebraska — about 1 in 11,111 boys, against 1 in 40,482 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

09 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Nebraska1 in 11,111
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 16,667
  3. 3Iowa1 in 20,000
  4. 4Missouri1 in 20,000
  5. 5Ohio1 in 20,000
  6. 6Oklahoma1 in 20,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 20,000
  8. 8Illinois1 in 25,000

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

Dwain around the world

Where Dwain 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
    1996–2009
    #3,744
    in 2009
  • Ireland
    1979–1990
    #323
    in 1990
  • France
    1998–2001
    #4,253
    in 2001
  • South Australia
    1962–1981
    #311
    in 1981

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

Notable people named Dwain

People whose public names include Dwain, 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.

Dwain in other languages

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

DwaineDwayne

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

Dwain 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
#488
1959
Peak year
1959
258 that year
First recorded
1913
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
7,581
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Dwain

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

AlainCainDwaneZainBlainDwaineAdrainKainEfrainIainBrainDwayneShainDainDwanRainAntwainHussainJermainLainGermainHusainBritainOwain

Names with a curve like Dwain

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

BartonKennithCurtissSandyWallyDonnJerroldDouglassBernieValJameLen

Sibling names for Dwain

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 Dwain

Top names of 1959, Dwain's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1959Boys' names starting with D