Desire

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Désiré in TG Togo, CD Congo - Kinshasa, BF Burkina Faso and 2 more and Desiré in SE Sweden, NL Netherlands.

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 6 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◐

Desire is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name61K records spelled Desire16 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Desiré, Desirè, Désiré, Desirê, Désire

• English given name39K records spelled Desire29 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Netherlands, South Africa, Brazil

  Languages: English, Dutch, Western Frisian

  Also written Desiré, Désiré, Desire', Desirè, Désire

• French (Côte d’Ivoire) given name5.8K records spelled Desire4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Côte d’Ivoire

  Also written Désiré, Desiré, Désire

• Catalan given name3.5K records spelled Desire2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain

  Also written Desiré

• a separate given name1.8K records spelled Desire6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Cameroon, Belgium, Spain

  Also written Désiré, Desiré, Desirè, Désire, Desirê

69 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●

Desire is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, the desired one

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In Romanian, thickening

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

• In Basque, nahi

  as a word·Trask, Etymological Dictionary of Basque (2008 posthumous draft)

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) — 73 years between 1915–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Joseph Désiré Courtb. 1797FRpainter (1797-1865)
• Gustave Courbetb. 1819FRnot in their usual nameFrench painter (1819–1877)
• Édouard Branlyb. 1844FRnot in their usual nameFrench physicist (1844-1940)
• Désiré-Émile Inghelbrechtb. 1880FRFrench conductor and composer (1880–1965)
• Abel Bonnardb. 1883FRnot in their usual nameFrench writer, poet and politician
• Désiré Defauwb. 1885BEconductor, violinist
• Fernandelb. 1903FRnot in their usual nameFrench actor and singer (1903-1971)
• Dési Bouterseb. 1945SRnot in their usual nameleader of Suriname (1980–1987, 2010–2020)
• Desire Oparanozieb. 1993NGNigerian footballer
• Désiré Douéb. 2005FRFrench footballer (born 2005)

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 · 397 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Desire?

We estimate roughly 12 thousand people bear Desire (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Desire have the most bearers?

Desire is most frequently recorded in France, where it is most often spelled desire.

How common is Desire compared with other names?

In France, Desire is the 700th most common given name of 711,207 given names recorded there.

Is Desire a male or female name?

Desire 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 Desire mean?

Recorded meaning: To want; to wish for earnestly.