Denise
- Pronunciation
- [De-nise]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Feminine Form Of Denys (Named For The God Of Wine)
- Origin
- French
About the Name Denise
Denise is the French feminine form of Denis (or Denys), which traces to the Latin Dionysius and ultimately to the Greek Dionysios — the name of Dionysus, the god of wine, festivity, and creative ecstasy in ancient Greek religion. The name carried strong Christian resonance as well, since Saint Denis, the third-century bishop of Paris and patron saint of France, helped ensure the name's survival and spread throughout medieval Europe. Its French elegance — the soft second syllable landing on a voiced z sound — made Denise a natural candidate for Anglophone adoption in the 20th century.
As a distinctly mid-century American name, Denise tracked closely with the postwar baby boom. It first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1950 and reached its peak just five years later, in 1955, at rank #23 — a meteoric climb that reflects the speed with which French-inflected names traveled through American popular culture in that era. Over its tracked SSA run the name accounts for more than 329,000 top-1000 births, making it one of the more substantial feminine names of its generation. After its 1950s apex, Denise declined gradually but held on far longer than many of its cohort, appearing at #876 as recently as 2020 — suggesting a loyal base of parents who still find the name's classic Gallic sound appealing rather than dated.
The name's staying power into the 21st century speaks to its phonetic balance: two clean syllables, a soft opening consonant, and an ending that resonates with names like Louise and Elise. Recorded spelling variants are numerous and include Danica, Danice, Danise, Denice, Deniece, Denisse, Denni, Dennise, Denny, and Denyse.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Denise
US Popularity History (1950–2020)
Annual US births named Denise by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1961 with 15,381 girls named Denise (girl rank #30 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2020, ranked #876 for girls (307 US births). That's 846 places below its 1961 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 Denise Most Popular?
Average girl-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 girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Denise the strongest states are Nevada, California, Illinois.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | #484 | 18 |
| 2 | California | #794 | 401 |
| 3 | Illinois | #821 | 38 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #905 | 23 |
| 5 | Texas | #907 | 205 |
| 6 | Arizona | #913 | 26 |
| 7 | North Carolina | #948 | 27 |
| 8 | Georgia | #995 | 39 |
| 9 | Florida | #1,082 | 61 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | #1,082 | 61 |
| 2 | Georgia | #995 | 39 |
| 3 | North Carolina | #948 | 27 |
| 4 | Arizona | #913 | 26 |
| 5 | Texas | #907 | 205 |
| 6 | New Jersey | #905 | 23 |
| 7 | Illinois | #821 | 38 |
| 8 | California | #794 | 401 |
| 9 | Nevada | #484 | 18 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Denise in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Danica | Morning Star | Female | Slavic |
| Danice | Feminine Variant Of Daniel God Will Judge. | Female | English |
| Danise | Feminine Variant Of Daniel God Will Judge. | Female | English |
| Denice | Feminine Of Denis Or Denys From The Greek Name Dionysus. | Female | French |
| Deniece | Feminine Of Denis From The Greek Name Dionysus. | Female | French |
| Denisse | Feminine Of Denis From The Greek Name Dionysus. | Female | French |
| Denni | Combination Of Deana: (Divine) And Dina: (From The Valley: Avenged). | Female | English |
| Dennise | Feminine Of Denis From The Greek Name Dionysus. | Female | French |
| Denny | Variant Of Dionysius. Dionysius Is The Mythological Greek God Of Wine Responsible For Growth Of The Vines And The Originator Of Winemaking: (Equivalent To The Roman God Bacchus.) | Male | English |
| Denyse | Feminine Of Denis From The Greek Name Dionysus. | Female | French |
Looking for names like Denise?
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 Denise to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Denise against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).