Derek
Feminine · “Ruler of the people”
Derek is given to boys far more often — 239,060 boys against 909 girls since 1880. See Derek as a boy name
Derek is what is left of a very long Germanic name after a thousand years of wear. Its relatives in other languages are so unlike it that nobody would guess they were the same word.
How old is the name Derek?
Derek first appears in US birth records in 1956 — 69 years ago. The typical Derek alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 900 people named Derek are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Derek most popular?
Derek peaked in 1980, reaching #1936 nationally. See the whole 1980 chart.
Where it comes from
From Theodoric to Derek
The story of Derek
The king who first made the name matter ruled Italy for thirty years and could not, by one ancient account, write. Theodoric the Ostrogoth governed Rome's former territory better than its last emperors had, kept the Senate, repaired the aqueducts and left a mausoleum roofed with a single stone — and when documents required his signature, the story goes, he used a stencil plate with the first four letters cut into it and traced his name through the holes. The detail may be a hostile invention. It has stuck to him for fifteen hundred years all the same, because it captures something true about the arrangement: a Gothic soldier running a Latin state, signing in a language he governed in and could not read.
Meaning
Ruler of the people
The elements are the word for a people or tribe and the word for rule. The compound has been worn down differently in every language that carried it, which is why the meaning is settled and the family resemblance is invisible.
How the name formed
- Theodoric
- Diederik
- Derek
Related forms: Dirk · Dietrich · Thierry · Teodorico
Pronouncing Derek
DER-ik
Two syllables, stress at the front. Britain says DE-rik and America often DARE-ik, and both are established.
Nicknames for Derek
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
- 1956
- Most girls named
- 198757 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1936reached in 1980
- Change vs 2010
- −16.7%5 in 2011, 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.
Derek in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dirk in Dutch — same name
- Dietrich in German — same name
- Thierry in French — same name
- Teodorico in Italian — same name
Dereks among us
people named Derek 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
Derek 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 impossible to mispronounce in English.
- The meaning is settled and easy to explain.
- It has genuine relatives across northern Europe, however unlike they look.
- Derrick and Deric are both common and his will be written as one of them.
- The spelling is recorded for both sexes, though the boys hold nearly all of it.
- The name belongs strongly to one American stretch of decades.
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What they receive
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Derek
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Dereks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Derek are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Derek in 2025?
- Derek is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Derek with classmates?
- Derek 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 Derek? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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