Dennis

The name Dennis is a boy's name of French origin. 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.