Dimas is a Spanish form of Dismas, a Greek-derived biblical name often interpreted as sunset or death.
Dimas is the Spanish and Portuguese rendering of Dismas, the name given by Christian tradition to the penitent thief crucified alongside Jesus — the man who, according to the Gospel of Luke, rebuked the other criminal and asked to be remembered in Christ's kingdom. The name does not appear in canonical scripture; it was bestowed by later hagiographic texts, particularly the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. The etymology is debated, but many scholars connect it to the Greek dysme, meaning 'sunset' or 'the west,' lending it a poetic, elegiac quality.
Saint Dismas became the patron saint of prisoners, those condemned to death, and funeral directors — an unexpectedly tender assignment for a figure whose biography consists of a single deathbed act of faith. His feast day is March 25th in the Roman Catholic calendar. In Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, where Dimas is most common, the name carries the warmth of Catholic popular devotion: the idea that redemption arrives at the last possible moment, that no one is beyond grace.
Dimas has remained steadily used across Mexico, Brazil, Spain, and Portugal for centuries, rarely fashionable but never absent. It ages well — serious on a child, dignified on an adult. In recent decades it has crossed into broader usage as parents seek Spanish-heritage names with genuine historical roots rather than invented constructions. There is something quietly radical about a name whose most famous bearer was, by any worldly measure, a failure — and yet is venerated.