Derwin
Masculine · “Dear friend”
Derwin is Old English and it means a dear friend — deor is dear, wine is a friend. The wine element ends a whole family of Anglo-Saxon names, Edwin, Godwin, Baldwin, and it has nothing to do with the drink.
How old is the name Derwin?
Derwin first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Derwin alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 3,200 people named Derwin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Derwin most popular?
Derwin peaked in 1965, reaching #638 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 4,970 places below that high. See the whole 1965 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Deorwine to Derwin
The story of Derwin
Deorwine was an Anglo-Saxon name and largely disappeared after the Conquest, surviving mainly as the surname Darwin — which is why Charles Darwin's family name is an Old English compound about friendship. Both Darwin and Derwin returned as American given names in the twentieth century; Derwin's peak in 1965 sits alongside Darwin's own American use, and the name has been used particularly in African American families. Both spellings remain in the American records at low levels.
Meaning
Dear friend
From Old English Deorwine, from dēore, dear or beloved, and wine, a friend. The reading is settled and both elements are transparent. The same wine ends Edwin, prosperity-friend, Godwin, God-friend, and Baldwin, bold friend; it is unrelated to the Latin vinum. Derwin also serves as a variant of Darwin, which is the same name by a slightly different road.
How the name formed
- Deorwine
- Darwin
- Derwin
Related forms: Deorwine · Darwin
Pronouncing Derwin
DUR-win
Two syllables, stress on the first. Darwin and Derwin are near-identical in American speech, which is why the two spellings persist.
Nicknames for Derwin
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
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 1958140 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #638reached in 1965
- Change vs 2023
- +166.7%16 in 2025, 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.
Derwin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Deorwine in Old English — related form
- Darwin in English — spelling variant
Derwins among us
people named Derwin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Derwin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Estel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Derwin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Estel climbed just as high around 1905, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Estel's path sketches the road Derwin is walking now.
Derwin 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
Derwin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Derwin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and among the warmest any name carries.
- Win works as a short form and is a real Old English word.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- Darwin is the commoner spelling and will be written for it.
- Darwin is an overwhelming association for anyone who knows biology.
- It has a genuine Anglo-Saxon history that the modern spelling obscures.
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What they receive
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Derwin
Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Derwins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,200 people named Derwin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Derwin in 2025?
- Derwin ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Derwin?
- About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Derwin — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Derwin with classmates?
- Derwin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Derwin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Derwin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Derwin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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