Dedra
Feminine
Four English spellings try to write one Irish name, and Dedra removes the most. Deirdre has an i and two r's; Deidra drops one r; Dedra drops the i as well, leaving five letters where the Irish has seven. What English is doing in all four cases is trying to spell a cluster it does not say.
How old is the name Dedra?
Dedra first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Dedra alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 4,100 people named Dedra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dedra most popular?
Dedra peaked in 1968, reaching #738 nationally. See the whole 1968 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Deirdre to Dedra
The story of Dedra
The second r in Deirdre is not pronounced by English speakers, and the i before it is barely there either, so a name transmitted by hearing loses both in stages: Deirdre to Deidra to Dedra. All three are in the American record and they represent the same simplification at three depths. What is lost along the way is the connection to the Irish spelling, which is the only thing that identifies the name as belonging to one of the great tragedies of Irish literature.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Deirdre's meaning has not been recovered. Proposals connect it to a word for a woman, to one about raging or troubling, and to a broken-hearted reading that appears to have been supplied by the story rather than by the language. None can be shown. The name is very old — it belongs to the Ulster Cycle, among the earliest material written down in Irish — and being that old is exactly why the trail is cold.
How the name formed
- Deirdre
- Deidra
- Dedra
Related forms: Deirdre
Pronouncing Dedra
DEE-druh
DEE-druh, two syllables, stress at the front. All four spellings are said this way by English speakers; the Irish original has the same two syllables and a different vowel quality that English does not reproduce.
Nicknames for Dedra
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 1963190 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #738reached in 1968
- Change vs 2006
- +50.0%9 in 2007, from 6
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.
Dedra in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Deirdre in Irish — same name
Dedras among us
people named Dedra are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Dedra sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Five letters for a name that usually takes seven, and nothing in it is silent.
- Dee is a ready short form and a complete name of its own.
- The Irish literature behind it is genuinely ancient and worth telling.
- Deirdre is the standard spelling and readers who know the legend will prefer it.
- Four spellings compete and the name is dictated every time.
- The story attached to the name is a tragedy with no survivors, which is worth knowing.
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Dedra
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Dedras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,100 people named Dedra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dedra in 2025?
- Dedra is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Dedra with classmates?
- Dedra will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
Dorothy#421 · Donna#1962 · Deborah#862 · Debra#4460 · Diane#2607 · Doris#2895 · Denise#1673 · Danielle#549
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dedra? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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