Derica
Feminine
Derica may be a feminine built on a man's name or a respelling of a plant name, and the record does not choose. The English word its first syllables approach used to describe a line on the ground with guards behind it.
How old is the name Derica?
Derica first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Derica alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 600 people named Derica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Derica most popular?
Derica peaked in 1989, reaching #3402 nationally. See the whole 1989 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Derica
A deadline was once a real line. In American Civil War prison camps a boundary was marked inside the stockade — a rail, a ditch or a furrow — and prisoners who crossed it were shot without warning; the word appears in the official correspondence about Andersonville and in the testimony afterwards. It had nothing to do with time. The sense of a date after which something is too late came much later, apparently from newspaper printing, where the deadline was first a guideline on the bed of a press marking where type would not print and then, by extension, the hour past which copy could not be set. The modern office word therefore has a literal origin that is a good deal grimmer than the thing it now describes.
Meaningnot established
Not established
It may add a Latin feminine ending to Derek, or replace the first letter of Erica, or be an independent build. The three produce the same spelling and nothing separates them.
Pronouncing Derica
DER-ik-uh
Three syllables with the stress at the front. Families reading it from the plant name say duh-REE-kuh instead, and the spelling does not decide.
Nicknames for Derica
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 199732 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3402reached in 1989
- Change vs 2016
- −28.6%5 in 2024, 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.
Dericas among us
people named Derica 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
Derica 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
- Both cuts produce short forms and neither sounds like the other.
- Six letters with no silent ones make it simple to spell aloud.
- It is genuinely rare while being built from familiar sounds.
- Derrica, Dericka and Erica will all be written for it.
- Stress placement is unsettled, so strangers will say it two ways.
- Which of the three origins applies is not recorded.
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Derica
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Dericas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Derica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Derica in 2025?
- Derica is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Derica with classmates?
- Derica 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 Derica? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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