Douglas is a Scottish name from the Gaelic dubh glas, "dark stream" or "black water", first the name of a river and then of the powerful Clan Douglas. General Douglas MacArthur and actor Douglas Fairbanks made it an all-American first name in the 20th century. Douglas was a top 50 name in the 1940s and 1950s; it ranked number 274 in 2000 and has slowly declined to number 807 in 2025.