Dimitri
Meaning
follower of Demeter, goddess of the harvest
The story
Dimitri is the French and Western European road into a very old Greek name: Demetrios, follower of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, which makes it one of the few mainstream names still tipping its hat to a pagan deity. Russia made the name its own as Dmitri, and literature's most famous bearer is probably the eldest Karamazov brother. Animation supplied a friendlier one: the charming con man of 1997's Anastasia, who introduced the Dimitri spelling to a generation of American children. The extra i keeps the pronunciation honest for English readers, dih-MEE-tree, which is much of why this spelling travels best. In US records Dimitri is at its most current in the 2010s and 2020s in nearly equal measure. The timing invites an easy guess: the children who watched Anastasia are now old enough to be the parents doing the naming.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Dimitri peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
2,630 people · the #4,274 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 76,923 · median age 15
Among people named Dimitri living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 366 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Dimitri
Most people given the name Dimitri in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Dimitri deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Dimitri truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Dimitri fits with your family’s names and surname.
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