Dennis

French from Greek, vernacular form of Dionysius

"god of Nysa"

Dennis Origin and Meaning

The name Dennis is a boy's name of French origin meaning "god of Nysa".

Although it has come to sound Irish, Dennis is one of the most widely-used French names (St. Denis is the patron saint of France) and harks back even further to Dionysius, the Greek god of wine and debauchery. It was introduced to England by the Normans.

Dennis was considered cool when it was near the top of the charts in the 1940s and 1950s, but has been slipping ever since, thanks in part to the devilish Dennis the Menace.

Dennis Barlow is the main character in Evelyn Waugh's satirical 1948 novel The Loved One. Some prominent namesakes also include Dennis Hopper, Dennis Rodman, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Leary and Dennis Wilson. Denis is a secondary spelling.

Dennis Rank in US Top 1000

# 708 in the US

Dennis Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 337 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Dennis

• 708 US 2024
• 337 Nameberry 2025
• 866 Future 2028
• 463 England 2023
• 191 Germany 2016

20 Names Similar to Dennis

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Dennis.

• Bruce
• Curtis
• Jeffrey
• Carl
• Larry
• Raymond
• Phillip
• Ronald
• Wayne
• Douglas
• Kenneth
• Marvin
• Steven
• Eddie
• Allen
• Russell
• Jerry
• Tony
• Rodney
• Alan

Famous People Named Dennis

• (John) Dennis Hastert 51st U.S. Speaker of the House
• Dennis William Quaid American actor
• Dennis Christopher American actor
• Dennis Lee Hopper American actor
• Dennis Franz American actor
• Dennis Carl Wilson American musician of The Beach Boys
• Dennis John Kucinich U.S. Congressman from Ohio
• Dennis Miller American comedian
• Dennis Dexter Haysbert American actor
• Dennis Keith Rodman American basketball player
• Dennis Leroy Springer American baseball player
• Dennis Gregory Pitta American football player
• Dennis Marvin Seidenberg German NHL Hockey player
• Dennis William Sciama British physicist
• Dennis Gabor Hungarian,British engineer; winner of the Nobel Prize
• Dennis O'Neil American comic book writer and editor

The name Dennis in Pop Culture

• Dennis Mitchell main character in the Dennis the Menace comic and series
• Dennis Creevey character in the Harry Potter series
• Dennis Finch character in "Just Shoot Me!"
• Dennis Cahill from movie "Executive Decision"
• Dennis Reynolds character on TV's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"
• Dennis character on TV's "Psych"
• Dennis the goldfish of Stanley Griff on animated TV series "Stanley"
• Dennis Loughran aka Denisovich, character in Hotel Transylvania 2
• Dennis Nedry character in film Jurassic Park
• Dennis the Hitman minor character from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
• Dennis the Locomotive minor character on animated series Thomas and Friends
• Dennis character in video game Far Cry 3
• Dennis the Peasant minor character in film Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• Dennis Lawrence Chan character on animated series Kid vs. Kat
• Dennis Duffy a minor character on TV's 30 Rock
• "Phantom Dennis" Cordelia Chase's deceased roommate on TV's Angel
• Dennis van Rita character in the 2006 film Love Belongs to Everyone
• Dennis O'Bannon a character from the Nickelodeon cartoon "Welcome To The Wayne"

International Variations of the name Dennis

• Denya Russian
• Dennes Eastern European
• Denes French
• Dunixi Basque
• Deniskov Russian
• Dionizy Polish
• Dion French
• Denys French
• Denis French
• Deniss French
• Denijs French
• Dénes Hungarian
• Dinis Portuguese
• Dione French
• Denka Russian
• Denney French