Denis

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Dennis in US United States, GB United Kingdom, DE Germany and 8 more, Денис in RU Russia, UA Ukraine, KZ Kazakhstan and 3 more, Denisse in MX Mexico, CL Chile, AR Argentina and 2 more and Denys in PL Poland.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Denis is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Portuguese given name1.6M records spelled Denis11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

  Also written Denís, Denìs, Dënïs, Denïs, Deni'S

• Swahili given name79K records spelled Denis5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Kenya, Tanzania, United States, Uganda

  Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho, Kinyarwanda

  Also written Deniş

• a separate given name27K records spelled Denis8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, Russia, United Kingdom

  Also written Deniš, Deniş, Dénis, Dênis, Denís

• Albanian given name15K records spelled Denis13 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Albania, Italy, United States, United Kingdom

  Also written Dêñis, Ďeňiş, Dènis, Dêñïs, Dênís

• Finnish given name14K records spelled Denis5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Estonia, United States, Russia

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Denís, Dénis

• Hungarian given name13K records spelled Denis33 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Hungary, Slovenia, United States, Romania

  Languages: Hungarian, Swahili, Hindi

  Also written Denes, Dénes, Dènes, Déneš, Deneś

• Indonesian given name12K records spelled Denis6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Malaysia, United States, Peru

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Deniş, 'Denis, Dënïs, Dênis

• Catalan given name6.3K records spelled Denis2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain

  Also written Denís

91 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Denis is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• Variant spelling of Dennis. This is the usual French form of the name.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In French, a male given name, equivalent to English Dennis; originally given in honor of a third century bishop of Paris, the patron saint of France

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, A male given name from Ancient Greek, a mostly British and Irish spelling variant of Dennis.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In French, Du grec Dionysios, « consacré à Dionysos »; fête/nom-d’agent traditionnel le 9 octobre.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• In French, Du grec Dionysios, « consacré à Dionysos »; sens populaire: « deux fois né ».

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 141 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Denis Diderotb. 1713FRFrench Enlightenment philosopher writer and encyclopædist (1713–1784)
• Denis Poissonb. 1781FRFrench mathematician, mechanician and physicist (1781–1840)
• Dennis Gaborb. 1900HUnot in their usual nameNobel Prize-winning physicist and inventor of holography
• George Carlinb. 1937USnot in their usual nameAmerican stand-up comedian (1937–2008)
• Dennis Titob. 1940USnot in their usual nameAmerican businessman
• Dennis Ritchieb. 1941USnot in their usual nameAmerican computer scientist, co-inventor of the Unix operating system and the C programming language (1941–2011)
• Dennis Raderb. 1945USnot in their usual nameAmerican serial killer (born 1945)
• Denis Mukwegeb. 1955CDCongolese gynecologist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• Denis Villeneuveb. 1967CACanadian film director and screenwriter (born 1967)
• Dennis Bergkampb. 1969NLnot in their usual nameDutch association football player (born 1969)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,987 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Denis?

We estimate roughly 1.1 million people bear Denis (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Denis have the most bearers?

Denis is most frequently recorded in Russia, where it is most often spelled денис.

How common is Denis compared with other names?

In Russia, Denis is the 36th most common given name of 418,751 given names recorded there.

Is Denis a male or female name?

Denis is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.

What does the name Denis mean?

Recorded meaning: Short form of Dionysius; used in Ireland to anglicise Donagh.