Explore the Family Name Deems

The meaning of Deems

1. English: derivative of Deem, meaning ‘(son or servant) of the judge’. 2. Dutch: case inflected variant of Daems or Daams, a patronymic from the personal name Daam from the personal name Adam. Compare Dahms.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Deems in the United States?

The popularity of the surname Deems saw a slight decline between 2000 and 2010, according to data from the Decennial U.S. Census. In 2000, Deems ranked 17,073 in terms of popularity, but dropped to 18,457 by 2010, marking an 8.11% decrease. The number of individuals bearing the Deems name also shrank during this period, falling from 1,533 to 1,499, a 2.22% decrease. Notably, the proportion of Deems per 100,000 people similarly decreased by 10.53%, from 0.57 to 0.51.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#17,073	#18,457	-8.11%
Count	1,533	1,499	-2.22%
Proportion per 100k	0.57	0.51	-10.53%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Deems

In terms of ethnicity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows that the majority of individuals with the Deems surname are White, with minimal changes in distribution over the decade. In 2000, 96.35% of Deems were identified as White, and this figure slightly increased to 96.40% by 2010. Interestingly, there was a significant increase in those identifying as Hispanic, from 0.91% in 2000 to 1.13% in 2010, indicating a 24.18% rise. There was a negligible change in individuals identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native. However, there were no Deems identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander or Black in 2010, in contrast to 0.46% in each category in 2000. Those reporting as two or more races remained relatively stable at around 1.33%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.35%	96.4%	0.05%
Two or More Races	1.37%	1.33%	-2.92%
Hispanic	0.91%	1.13%	24.18%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.46%	0.47%	2.17%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.46%	0%	0%
Black	0.46%	0%	0%