Chidera
Feminine · “what God has written”
Chidera is given to both — 544 girls and 233 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Igbo names are sentences about God, and they say what has happened rather than what is wished. Chidera means what God has written, and it is one of a very large family: Chinedu, God leads; Chiamaka, God is beautiful; Nkechi, what God has given.
How old is the name Chidera?
Chidera first appears in US birth records in 1993 — 32 years ago. The typical Chidera is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Chidera are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Chidera most popular?
Chidera peaked in 1999, reaching #4718 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 1,828 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Chi to Chidera
The story of Chidera
Igbo naming is unusually direct: a name is a statement, often about the circumstances of the birth or about God's part in it, and a family reading a list of its own names is reading a sequence of theological claims. Chidera belongs to the group formed with chi as the subject, which is by far the largest. The verb behind it carries the sense of writing in the specific sense of what has been set down, so the name reads as an acknowledgement rather than a hope. Igbo naming reached United States records in volume with Nigerian migration from the 1970s onward, and Chidera's best year on file is 1999.
Meaning
what God has written
Igbo Chi, the personal god or God, plus a verb form meaning has written, giving what God has written or God has written it. The construction is a complete clause. Chi is the element opening a very large number of Igbo names and is one of the central terms of Igbo religious thought, naming a personal spiritual being unique to each individual.
How the name formed
- Chi
- Chidera
Related forms: Chidera · Chiderah
Pronouncing Chidera
chee-DEH-rah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Igbo is tonal and the tones are not written in this spelling, which loses information that Igbo speakers would supply from context.
Nicknames for Chidera
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1993
- Most girls named
- 201428 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4718reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- −19.0%17 in 2025, from 21
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Chidera in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Chidera in Igbo — same name
- Chiderah in Igbo — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Chideras among us
people named Chidera are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Chidera
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Nhu test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Chidera's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nhu climbed just as high around 1982, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nhu's path sketches the road Chidera is walking now.
Chidera sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Chidera beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Chidera in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that is a complete sentence.
- Dera and Chi are both usable and completely established within the tradition.
- Open syllables throughout, so English speakers manage it at once.
- The Igbo tones are lost in the English spelling.
- Outside Nigerian communities the name is unfamiliar in America.
- Chidera, Chidiera and Chiderah all appear in the records.
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What they receive
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Chidera
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Chideras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Chidera are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Chidera in 2025?
- Chidera ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Chidera?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Chidera — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Chidera with classmates?
- Chidera will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Chidera
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Chidera? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Chidera and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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