Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Dempsey was most popular in 2014, when 124 American babies were given the name — ranking #3,028 that year. In 2025 it ranked #3,937, with 85 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 4,799 people named Dempsey.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Dempsey is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 138 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 4,799 American births named Dempsey between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 2,864 are estimated to be alive today.
85 American babies were named Dempsey in 2025, ranking #3,937 that year.
Dempsey is holding steady. Across 2021–2025 it averaged 86 births a year, against 104 a year across 2011–2015 — a change of -17% over the decade.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Dempsey is mostly a boy’s name — 11.5% of the 4,799 Americans given it were girls and 88.5% were boys. It changed hands: since 2025 it has gone mainly to girls, having gone mainly to boys before that. In births since 2016 it is 34% girls and 66% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 2,864 Americans named Dempsey are alive today — 60% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 17 years old, and half are between 9 and 56. That is a wide band, the mark of a name in steady use across generations rather than a passing fashion.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Dempsey on the interactive charts
About · Privacy · Contact
Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org