Demi carries 14,062 cumulative American girls on SSA record, sits at rank 451, and reached its peak in 2020. The chart shows minimal pre-1990 use, a small 1990s blip aligned with Demi Moore's career peak, and a fast 2018-2020 climb that aligns directly with Demi Lovato's career arc and broader American interest in short, sharp girl names.
The Greek source
Demi has two parallel etymological sources. The first traces it to the Greek prefix demi- meaning "half," a meaning that informs words like demigod and demitasse. The second connects it to the Greek Demetrius and Demeter, ultimately from the goddess Demeter, the Greek goddess of harvest and agriculture. Most contemporary American Demis trace their name through the celebrity-Demi register rather than directly to either Greek root.
Demi Moore (born 1962) carried the name through her late-1980s and 1990s career peak. Demi Lovato (born 1992) has been the dominant cultural anchor since the late 2000s and into the 2020s, and the recent SSA surge tracks directly to that visibility.
The short-modern cluster
Demi sits with Remi, Lexi, Zara, and Indi in the short, sharp, contemporary girl cluster that has anchored 2020s American naming. Browse the broader Greek girl names family for the deeper etymological lineage, or scan the four-letter girl-names list at 4-letter girl names for adjacent picks.
The counter-reading
The celebrity-anchor concentration is the practical question. Demi reads to most American adults as either Demi Moore or Demi Lovato, with very little independent identity outside those two. The two-syllable DEM-ee rhythm is short, light, and travels easily. The name has no common nicknames given its already-short form, which means American Demis use the full name from infancy through adulthood.