Derald
Masculine · “spear and rule”
The d at the front of this name cannot be explained by sound. Gerald to Jerald is a natural change, because English has been softening that g for centuries. Gerald to Derald is not: no ordinary process turns one into the other, which means the name is a blend rather than a variant.
How old is the name Derald?
Derald first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Derald alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 1,000 people named Derald are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Derald most popular?
Derald peaked in 1929, reaching #721 nationally. See the whole 1929 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Gerald to Derald
The story of Derald
The family the source name is most associated with went abroad and stayed. Norman lords called Fitzgerald arrived in Ireland in the twelfth century as part of an invasion, took enormous holdings in the south and west, and then did what invaders are not supposed to do: they married locally, spoke the language, patronized Irish poets and adopted Irish law, until the English crown was passing statutes specifically to stop them. The phrase that attached itself to them — more Irish than the Irish themselves — was coined about exactly this, and it became the standard description of what happens to a conquering class that stays long enough.
Meaningscholars disagree
spear and rule, at second hand
If the source is Gerald the elements are Germanic and their senses are secure. If the name is a blend with Donald or Darrell, as the opening consonant suggests, then it is carrying two ancestries and neither cleanly.
How the name formed
- Gerald
- Jerald
- Derald
Pronouncing Derald
DER-uld
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Some families stress the second instead, saying duh-RALD, and the spelling supports either.
Nicknames for Derald
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 192975 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #721reached in 1929
- Change vs 1994
- 0.0%6 in 2000, 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.
Deralds among us
people named Derald 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
Derald 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
- It is short, plain and completely easy to say once the stress is fixed.
- The spelling causes no trouble and never needs repeating.
- It is genuinely rare with no strong associations attached.
- Gerald, Jerald and Darrell all sit nearby and the name gets pulled toward each.
- The stress placement is not settled and strangers will guess.
- The generation that used it is now elderly.
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Derald
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Deralds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Derald are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Derald in 2025?
- Derald is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Derald with classmates?
- Derald will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Derald? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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