Desi

given name · Latin script

Meaning: pers. name (D. Arnaz)

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/dˈɛsi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Desi is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Indonesia than in any other country, where it is the 52nd most common given name.

rarermore common
  • IDIndonesia≈1 in 1.7K(inferred from the name graph)
  • USUnited States1 in 110K
  • ESSpain≈1 in 27K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Indonesia (inferred from the name graph)

≈160,000 people, est.

3 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
180 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 1.7K (inferred from the name graph)

Indonesia, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

DesiLatin(measured from records)
데시Hangul(measured from records)
ΔεσηGreek(measured from records)

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

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

pers. name (D. Arnaz)

Sources 1

  • Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Desi counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Desi is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
ID Indonesia#52≈160,000 est.≈1 in 1.7KlistedDesi180
CN China—≈5,500 est.≈1 in 253K—Desi14
US United States—3,0181 in 110K2.4KDesi178
ES Spain—≈1,900 est.≈1 in 27K—Desi32
IT Italy—≈1,300 est.≈1 in 47K1Desi27
TW Taiwan—≈700 est.≈1 in 34K—Desi7
NL Netherlands—4171 in 41K385Desi15
SG Singapore—≈160 est.≈1 in 38K—Desi10

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: the id-github-names register; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

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

  • English given name21 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Germany, Australia, United Kingdom

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Dési, Deşi, Dësï, Dëšì, Dēsî

  • Spanish given name7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Dési, Dēsï, Déśî, Dësi, Dêsî

  • Bulgarian given name23 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Bulgaria, United States, Spain, United Kingdom

    Languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian

    Also written Деси, Dessy, Dessi, Dessì, Dési

  • a separate name4 spellings in the group

    Also written Dési, Dësi, Desì

  • Swahili given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Kenya, India, Malaysia

    Also written Dési

55 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(measured from records)

Desi is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In English, Of or pertaining to the culture, people, or products of South Asia; South Asian.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Catalan, inflection of desar:

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Finnish, decilitre

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Latvian, Dajaku cilts no klemantanu grupas, dzīvo Kalimantānas rietumos (Indonēzijā un Malaizijā), valoda pieder pie austronēziešu saimes indonēziešu grupas, animistiski ticējumi

    as a wordTēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

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.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

19601970198019902000Desi Reijers, b. 1964Desi Lydic, b. 1981Hera Desi Ana Rachmawati, b. 1992Desi Banks, b. 1993

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).

How to address them(machine-generated)

InformalHalo Desi,Hi Desi, (English)

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 41 sources across 27 countries.

Official registers attesting Desi
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20201.7K#5,611
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20201.3K#5,611
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018)—385#2,410
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017)—341#4,016
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)197068—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)197265—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)197964—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)197161—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)195657—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)197452—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)197352—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)202535—

Reference works 2

  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Desi mean, and where does it come from?
pers. name (D. Arnaz) Recorded by Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names.
What are other forms of the name Desi?
In the etymology graph, Didier, Dessie and Dezső are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Desiderio.
How do you pronounce Desi?
A machine transcription gives /dˈɛsi/ (IPA) for Indonesian.
In which country does Desi have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 160 thousand people named Desi in Indonesia, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled desi.
How common is the name Desi?
In the United States, the national register counted 3,018 people named Desi in 2020, about 1 in 110 thousand residents.
How common is Desi compared with other names?
In Indonesia, Desi is the 52nd most common given name of 270,909 given names recorded there.
Is Desi a male or female name?
Desi 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 do you want to know about Desi?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/desi

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Desi” — the 52nd most common given name in Indonesia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Desi parses inside a full name →