Derwood
Masculine
Derwood is an American name of the 1910s that most people now know only as a joke. A television mother-in-law spent eight years refusing to get her son-in-law's name right and calling him Derwood instead, and the deliberate mistake outlived the name it was mocking.
How old is the name Derwood?
Derwood first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Derwood alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 300 people named Derwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Derwood most popular?
Derwood peaked in 1919, reaching #1207 nationally. See the whole 1919 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From an English-looking compound with no traceable source to Derwood
The story of Derwood
The joke worked because the name was already slightly ridiculous by the 1960s — old-fashioned enough to sound stuffy and rare enough to sound made up. A character with an aristocratic manner mispronouncing an ordinary man's name is one of the oldest devices in comedy, and this version was so successful that a great many Americans now believe Derwood was invented for the program. It was not: it is in the record forty years earlier, given to several hundred boys a year, by families who had presumably heard it somewhere and liked it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source has been established. It looks like an English place name, and there are places called Derwood, but none of them is old enough or important enough to have produced a first name. It may be built on Derwent, a British river name that survives four times over in England, or on the same word that gives Durward, or it may have been assembled from familiar-sounding elements in the way a great many American names of the period were.
How the name formed
- an English-looking compound with no traceable source
- Derwood appears in the American record in the 1910s
- peaks at the end of that decade
- out of ordinary use within a generation
- a television joke revives it as a joke
Related forms: Durward · Derward
Pronouncing Derwood
DUR-wood
Two syllables, stress at the front. There is no competing reading, which is one of the few certainties about it.
Nicknames for Derwood
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 191934 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1207reached in 1919
- Change vs 1973
- 0.0%5 in 1976, from 5
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.
Derwood in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Durward in English — related form
- Derward in English — spelling variant
Derwoods among us
people named Derwood 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
Derwood 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 read correctly at sight and holds no spelling difficulties.
- Woody is available inside it and is a warm and usable short form.
- It is genuinely unrepeated — nobody now gives it.
- For anybody over fifty it is a punchline from a television program.
- There is no meaning and no established origin.
- It is firmly of the early twentieth century and has had no revival.
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Derwood
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Derwoods are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Derwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Derwood in 2025?
- Derwood is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Derwood with classmates?
- Derwood will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Derwood? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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