Derrick
Masculine · “ruler of the people”
Derrick is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 145,347 boys against 997 girls since 1880. See Derrick as a girl name
Derrick Bell resigned a Harvard professorship over the university's refusal to tenure a Black woman, took an unpaid leave that became permanent, and spent the rest of his career arguing that racism is a permanent feature of American life rather than an aberration from it. The field he founded is now the subject of legislation in a dozen states.
How old is the name Derrick?
Derrick first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Derrick alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 134,000 people named Derrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Derrick most popular?
Derrick peaked in 1980, reaching #74 nationally. Today it ranks #850, 776 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Derrick appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From a Germanic compound about a people and rule to Derrick
The story of Derrick
Bell had been a lawyer for the government and then for the civil rights movement before he taught, and he wrote in parables — short fictional cases that made an argument the case law could not. His central claim, that civil rights advances happen when they happen to suit the interests of the majority, was unwelcome from the beginning and has not become less so. He gave up a chair rather than accept a faculty that was not going to change, and never got it back.
Meaning
ruler of the people
The name is a Dutch and Low German worn-down form of a long Germanic compound built from words for a people and for rule. It came into English through Flemish and Dutch traders and settled as Derrick and Derek, which are the same name and are both in the record. The route explains why it looks nothing like the German version of the same compound.
How the name formed
- a Germanic compound about a people and rule
- Dutch and Low German wear it down to Derrick
- the name enters English through trade
- an American peak at the start of the 1980s
- a legal scholar makes the name argued about
Related forms: Diederik · Dietrich · Derek
Pronouncing Derrick
DERR-ik
Two syllables, stress at the front. Derek and Derrick are identical in speech and differ only in how the middle consonant is written.
Nicknames for Derrick
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
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 19813,850 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #74reached in 1980
- Change vs 2023
- −16.3%288 in 2025, from 344
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.
Derrick in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Diederik in Dutch — same name
- Dietrich in German — same name
- Derek in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Derricks among us
people named Derrick are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,931 born in 2025 was named Derrick
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Derrick
- #850
- Derrick on the 2025 chart
- #535
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Derrick went to 288 boys in 2025, but Derick, Derik and Deric are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 446, which makes it the 535th most-given boys’ name of the year — 315 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 3,830 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,931 for Derrick 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 Johnnie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Derrick's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Johnnie climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Johnnie's path sketches the road Derrick is walking now.
Derrick 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
Where Derrick is headed
Derrick is easing off slowly — about 22% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Derrick beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Derrick in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is entirely familiar and needs no explanation anywhere.
- Rick is available and is a complete name in its own right.
- The meaning is clear and grand without being heavy.
- Derek is equally common and the spelling will need saying every time.
- It is closely dated to the 1970s and 1980s in America.
- The word for an oil rig is spelled the same way and has a grim origin.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Derrick
Masculine · #850 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Derricks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 134,000 people named Derrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Derrick?
- Derrick is the most-used spelling in US records — 288 of the 446 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Derick, Derik and Deric.
- How popular is the name Derrick in 2025?
- Derrick ranks #850 among US boy names in 2025, with 288 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Derrick?
- About 1 in every 5,931 US boys born in 2025 was named Derrick — 288 in all.
- Will my child share the name Derrick with classmates?
- Derrick will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Derrick
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ramon#850 · Neil#850 · Waylen#848 · Braylon#848 · Jeremias#853 · Bear#853 · Cason#846 · Jimmy#846
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Derrick? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Derrick and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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