Derry
Feminine · “oak grove”
Derry is given to both — 137 girls and 1,541 boys since 1880. See Derry as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Derry is an oak grove, and the city that carries the name has two of them because the question of what to call it has been political for four hundred years. The Irish word means a grove of oaks; a London trade guild added a prefix in the seventeenth century; and which version a person uses in Northern Ireland is generally taken to indicate a good deal more than a preference about syllables.
How old is the name Derry?
Derry first appears in US birth records in 1932 — 93 years ago. The typical Derry alive today was born around 1954, making them about 71 years old. About 100 people named Derry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Derry most popular?
Derry peaked in 1942, reaching #3444 nationally. See the whole 1942 chart.
Where it comes from
From An Irish word for a grove of oaks to Derry
The story of Derry
Columba founded a monastery in the oak grove in the sixth century, and the story attached to his departure from Ireland is one of the earliest copyright disputes on record. He borrowed a psalter, copied it without asking, and the owner demanded the copy; the high king ruled against him with the judgment that to every cow belongs its calf, and to every book its copy. A battle followed, with a great many dead, and Columba left Ireland for Iona either as a penance or as an exile depending on which account you read. Whether the story is true in that shape is disputed by historians, but the ruling has been quoted for fourteen hundred years, and it is the earliest surviving statement of the principle that a copy belongs to the owner of the original.
Meaning
oak grove
The Irish word means an oak wood or grove, and it appears in a very large number of Irish place names. The reading is not in dispute. Where the name has instead been used as a short form of Derek, Dermot or Desmond, which also happens, the meaning is different in each case, and the spelling does not record which route a family took.
How the name formed
- An Irish word for a grove of oaks
- A monastery founded there in the sixth century
- A prefix added by a London trade guild
- Derry as a first name in American and Irish use
Related forms: Doire
Pronouncing Derry
DERR-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a short e. The Irish original is said much the same way, which is unusual: most Irish place names lose a great deal in the crossing and this one loses very little.
Nicknames for Derry
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
- 1932
- Most girls named
- 196112 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3444reached in 1942
- Change vs 1970
- −16.7%5 in 1973, 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.
Derry in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Doire in Irish — same name
Derrys among us
people named Derry 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
Derry 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, warm and impossible to mispronounce or misspell.
- It works on the register for either child, which the record confirms.
- It has a genuine Irish meaning that can be explained in three words.
- The city's name is politically charged in Northern Ireland and the charge attaches to the word.
- It reads as a nickname, and people will ask what it is short for.
- It is closely tied to the middle of the twentieth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Derry
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Derrys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Derry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Derry in 2025?
- Derry is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Derry with classmates?
- Derry 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 Derry? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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