Demetrius
- Pronunciation
- [De-me-tri-us]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Gift From Demeter
- Origin
- Greek
About the Name Demetrius
Demetrius is a name of ancient Greek origin meaning "gift from Demeter" — or more precisely, "devoted to Demeter," the Greek goddess of the harvest, grain, and fertility. The name is a theophoric compound: Dē-mētrios joins the goddess's name Dēmētēr with the adjectival suffix -ios, marking devotion or belonging. Demeter herself carries a name whose etymology is disputed — possibly combining da (earth) and mētēr (mother), making "earth mother" a plausible underlying sense — so Demetrius carries layers of meaning that reach back to archaic Greek agricultural religion. The name appears in the New Testament, in classical history, and in the names of several Macedonian and Hellenistic kings, giving it a long and substantial ancient pedigree.
Demetrius appears in the US Social Security top-1000 from 2000 and peaked in that same year at rank #384. The name has maintained a remarkably durable chart presence, remaining through 2023, with 261 births at rank #890 recorded that year. Total top-1000-qualifying births across the window reached approximately 10,574. Its more than two-decade continuity on the chart reflects genuine sustained affection for the name, particularly within communities drawn to its classical weight and Greek heritage. Recorded variants include Dimitri and Dimitry, shorter forms rooted in the same Greek original but with a distinctly Eastern European register.
Demetrius is a four-syllable name with a stately, deliberate cadence — the kind of name that commands the full space of its length without apology. The name's combination of ancient mythology, New Testament presence, and royal historical associations gives it an unusually rich backstory for parents who appreciate depth behind a name.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Demetrius
US Popularity History (2000–2023)
Annual US births named Demetrius by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 679 boys named Demetrius (boy rank #384 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2023, ranked #890 for boys (261 US births). That's 506 places below its 2000 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Demetrius Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Demetrius the strongest states are Nevada, Alabama, Mississippi.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | #448 | 19 |
| 2 | Alabama | #479 | 73 |
| 3 | Mississippi | #479 | 31 |
| 4 | Michigan | #489 | 161 |
| 5 | Georgia | #557 | 160 |
| 6 | Illinois | #566 | 136 |
| 7 | Wisconsin | #591 | 47 |
| 8 | Louisiana | #628 | 30 |
| 9 | Ohio | #632 | 143 |
| 10 | South Carolina | #635 | 43 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #910 | 62 |
| 2 | Tennessee | #814 | 65 |
| 3 | Virginia | #783 | 41 |
| 4 | Arizona | #761 | 30 |
| 5 | Colorado | #758 | 28 |
| 6 | Missouri | #719 | 50 |
| 7 | Maryland | #704 | 47 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #703 | 94 |
| 9 | Florida | #678 | 204 |
| 10 | Pennsylvania | #677 | 93 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Demetrius in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Demetrius?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Demetrius to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Demetrius against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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