Deidra
Feminine
Deidra is Deirdre with the awkward part removed. The Irish original has two r sounds close together and English mouths reliably drop one, so the written name followed the spoken one. Behind it is one of the oldest and saddest stories in Irish literature, and the name has never quite got out from under it.
How old is the name Deidra?
Deidra first appears in US birth records in 1941 — 84 years ago. The typical Deidra alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 9,600 people named Deidra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Deidra most popular?
Deidra peaked in 1980, reaching #547 nationally. See the whole 1980 chart.
Where it comes from
From Deirdre to Deidra
The story of Deidra
Deirdre is the central figure of one of the great Irish tragedies: prophesied at birth to bring ruin, raised in isolation to be a king's bride, in love with someone else, and dead at the end of it along with most of the cast. The tale was retold constantly through the Irish literary revival, which is what put the name into modern use in the first place — it had barely been given to anyone before the twentieth century. The English spelling has always been unstable, and Deidra, Deidre, Diedre and Dee Dee all record the same difficulty with the same cluster of consonants.
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 old is exactly why the trail is cold.
How the name formed
- Deirdre
- Deidra
Related forms: Deirdre
Pronouncing Deidra
DEE-druh
DEE-druh, two syllables, stress at the front. Deirdre is said the same way by most English speakers, which is precisely why the spelling simplified — the second r in the original is not being pronounced by anybody outside Ireland.
Nicknames for Deidra
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
- 1941
- Most girls named
- 1981304 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #547reached in 1980
- Change vs 2018
- −28.6%5 in 2020, from 7
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.
Deidra in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Deirdre in Irish — same name
Deidras among us
people named Deidra 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
Deidra 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
- The spelling matches how the name is genuinely said, which the Irish one does not in English mouths.
- Dee is a ready short form and a complete name of its own.
- The literary history behind it is genuinely ancient and worth telling.
- Deirdre is the standard spelling and readers who know the legend will prefer it and often correct to it.
- The story attached to the name is a tragedy with no survivors, and the phrase Deirdre of the Sorrows is how she is usually introduced.
- Deidre, Diedra and Deirdra are all in the record, so the spelling has to be given every time.
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Deidra
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Deidras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,600 people named Deidra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Deidra in 2025?
- Deidra is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Deidra with classmates?
- Deidra 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 Deidra? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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