Dedrick
Masculine · “ruler of the people”
Dedrick is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,456 boys against 16 girls since 1880.
Dedrick can be read two ways and both are real. It may be Diederik — the Dutch form of Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king who ruled Italy — arriving in America with Dutch and German settlers. Or it may be the De- prefix joined to Derrick, built in the twentieth century. Its peak is 1977, which favors the second.
How old is the name Dedrick?
Dedrick first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Dedrick alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 4,200 people named Dedrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dedrick most popular?
Dedrick peaked in 1977, reaching #701 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 5,442 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Theudoric to Dedrick
The story of Dedrick
Theodoric the Great ruled Italy from 493 and is one of the better-documented figures of the period; his name survives in German heroic poetry as Dietrich von Bern and in every Germanic language. Dutch settlers brought Diederik and Dirk to New Netherland in the seventeenth century, and Dedrick appears as an American surname from that stock. Separately, the De- prefix became one of the most productive elements in African-American naming from the 1950s, and it combined with Derrick — itself from the same Theodoric — to produce a name that looks identical. The two histories are genuinely entangled.
Meaningscholars disagree
ruler of the people
Germanic theud, 'people, nation', and ric, 'ruler, power', give Theudoric, the name of Theodoric the Great. Dutch wore it down to Diederik and then Dirk; German gives Dietrich. Dedrick is a plausible American spelling of the Dutch form. The competing reading takes it as De- plus Derrick, in which case the meaning still arrives through Derrick, which descends from the same Theudoric. Either way, the ruler is in there.
How the name formed
- Theudoric
- Diederik
- Dedrick
Related forms: Diederik · Dietrich · Derrick
Pronouncing Dedrick
DED-rik
Two syllables, stress on the first. A three-syllable duh-DER-ik is also heard, following the De- prefix reading. Both circulate in American use and the spelling does not settle which.
Nicknames for Dedrick
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
- 1920
- Most boys named
- 1977147 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #701reached in 1977
- Change vs 2023
- −6.7%14 in 2025, from 15
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.
Dedrick in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Diederik in Dutch — related form
- Dietrich in German — related form
- Derrick in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Louisiana.
Dedricks among us
people named Dedrick are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Dedrick
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dedrick
- #6143
- Dedrick on the 2025 chart
- #906
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dedrick went to 14 boys in 2025, but Dedric is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 22, which makes it the 906th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,237 places above the chart.
- Dedrick14
- Dedric8
About 1 boy in 77,640 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Dedrick itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Sal test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dedrick's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sal climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sal's path sketches the road Dedrick is walking now.
Dedrick 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
Dedrick beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dedrick 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 both usable short forms with independent lives.
- The etymology is settled at the root, whichever route the name took.
- It has both a Dutch colonial and a modern American ancestry available.
- Two pronunciations circulate and the spelling does not settle which.
- Dedrick, Diedrick and Deidrick all exist, so records will drift.
- It is easily heard as Derrick with something in front.
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What they receive
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Dedrick
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dedricks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Dedrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dedrick?
- Dedrick is the most-used spelling in US records — 14 of the 22 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Dedric.
- How popular is the name Dedrick in 2025?
- Dedrick ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dedrick?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Dedrick — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dedrick with classmates?
- Dedrick will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dedrick
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dedrick? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dedrick and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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