Darrick
Masculine · “ruler of the people”
Darrick is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 8,130 boys against 11 girls since 1880.
Darrick is a spelling of Derrick, and Derrick has one of the strangest histories of any common English name: it descends from a Germanic royal name, and it also gave English the word for a crane, by way of a seventeenth-century London hangman. Its American peak is 1971, inside the top four hundred and seven, in the decade when the Da- respellings were at their most productive.
How old is the name Darrick?
Darrick first appears in US birth records in 1948 — 77 years ago. The typical Darrick alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 7,400 people named Darrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darrick most popular?
Darrick peaked in 1971, reaching #407 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 5,454 places below that high. See the whole 1971 chart.
Where it comes from
From Theudoric to Darrick
The story of Darrick
Theodoric the Great made the name famous, and it survives in the German heroic tradition as Dietrich von Bern. Dutch Dirk and Derrick came to England through trade and through the Low Countries connection, and by 1600 Derrick was an ordinary English name. Then a specific thing happened: a hangman at Tyburn around 1600 was named Derrick, his name became slang for the gallows, and from the gallows it transferred to the hoisting frame used over an oil well. That is why a derrick is a crane. American use of the given name rose sharply in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Da- spelling belongs to that period, alongside Darrell, Darren and Darryl.
Meaning
ruler of the people
Germanic theud, 'people, nation', and ric, 'ruler, power', give Theudoric — the name of the Ostrogothic king who ruled Italy from 493. Dutch wore it down to Diederik and then Dirk; English took Derrick from the Dutch in the medieval period. The same two elements, in the same order, give the modern German Dietrich. The etymology is settled and unusually well documented, because Theodoric the Great is a figure with a substantial written record.
How the name formed
- Theudoric
- Diederik
- Derrick
- Darrick
Related forms: Dirk · Dietrich · Derrick · Teodorico
Pronouncing Darrick
DAIR-ick
Two syllables, stress on the first. The a in the first syllable is said as in dare rather than as in dark, which is what distinguishes the spelling from a name like Darius. Identical to Derrick in most American speech.
Nicknames for Darrick
High
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
- 1948
- Most boys named
- 1971393 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #407reached in 1971
- Change vs 2023
- +15.4%15 in 2025, from 13
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.
Darrick in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dirk in Dutch — related form
- Dietrich in German — related form
- Derrick in English — spelling variant
- Teodorico in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Darricks among us
people named Darrick are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Darrick
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 Evert test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Darrick's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Evert climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Evert's path sketches the road Darrick is walking now.
Darrick 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
Darrick beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Darrick in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Rick and Ricky are ready-made short forms with a long history.
- The etymology is settled, ancient and connects to a real historical king.
- The pronunciation is obvious to any English reader.
- Derrick is the far more common spelling and hers will be written that way.
- A derrick is also an ordinary piece of industrial equipment.
- The Da- spelling dates the name closely to the 1960s and 1970s.
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What they receive
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Darrick
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Darricks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,400 people named Darrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darrick in 2025?
- Darrick ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Darrick?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Darrick — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Darrick with classmates?
- Darrick will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Darrick
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Darrick? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Darrick and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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