Drake
Masculine · “dragon”
Drake is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 36,792 boys against 83 girls since 1880.
Drake is an English surname turned first name, and its root is one of the most vivid in the medieval naming stock: the dragon of Old English draca, borrowed in turn from Latin draco. It is a single closed syllable that ends on a hard consonant, spelled exactly the way an English reader expects, and it has been on American birth records long enough to have carried through several waves of fashion.
How old is the name Drake?
Drake first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Drake alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 36,000 people named Drake are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Drake most popular?
Drake peaked in 2010, reaching #196 nationally. Today it ranks #827, 631 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Where it comes from
From Latin draco to Drake
The story of Drake
Drake belongs to the great body of English surnames that began as nicknames rather than places or trades. The dragon sense reached English through Latin draco and Old English draca, and by the Middle Ages Drake was a settled family name across southern England. Its most famous bearer, the Elizabethan sea captain Sir Francis Drake, carried it around the world in the 1570s and left it on the map at the Drake Passage below Cape Horn. The move from surname to given name is an American habit, and Drake has been used that way here for over a century.
Meaningscholars disagree
dragon; also the male duck
Two readings compete, and both are well grounded. The older is Old English draca, 'dragon' or 'serpent', from Latin draco — a medieval byname of the kind given for a banner, a sign, or a fierce reputation. The other is the plain English word drake, the male duck, which also served as a surname source. Some English families of the name are traced instead to the Old Norse personal name Draki.
How the name formed
- Latin draco
- Old English draca
- Middle English drake
- DrakeEnglish surname
- Drakegiven name
Related forms: Draco · Drakon
Pronouncing Drake
DRAYK
One syllable, rhyming with lake. The spelling matches the ordinary English word, so almost no one hesitates over it — spoken or written.
Nicknames for Drake
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 20101,877 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #196reached in 2010
- Change vs 2023
- −24.9%299 in 2025, from 398
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.
Drake in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Draco in Latin — related form
- Drakon in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Louisiana, California.
Drakes among us
people named Drake are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,713 born in 2025 was named Drake
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 Rafael test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Drake's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rafael climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rafael's path sketches the road Drake is walking now.
Drake 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 Drake is headed
Drake should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Drake beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Drake in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable with a clean hard ending, which pairs easily with longer middle and last names.
- Spelled the way it sounds, and identical to a familiar English word — rarely misheard, rarely misspelled.
- Documented as an English surname since the Middle Ages, with an unbroken written record behind it.
- Understood across the English-speaking world without translation or adjustment.
- Works equally as a first name or a middle name, in the American surname-name tradition.
- The Canadian musician who performs as Drake is, for now, the loudest association the name has, and it is a strong one. That will shape first reactions — some warmly, some not — until the association loosens with time.
- The name is also the ordinary English word for a male duck, which older children discover and occasionally enjoy.
- One syllable leaves little to shorten, so a child named Drake will mostly be called Drake — fine if you want that, worth knowing if you like having a formal name and a everyday one.
- It rose steeply and has begun easing back, so it carries a faint stamp of a particular stretch of years — though it is uncommon enough that most classrooms will hold just the one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Drake to the vote.
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What they receive
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Drake
Masculine · #827 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Drakes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 36,000 people named Drake are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Drake in 2025?
- Drake ranks #827 among US boy names in 2025, with 299 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Drake?
- About 1 in every 5,713 US boys born in 2025 was named Drake — 299 in all.
- Will my child share the name Drake with classmates?
- Drake will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Drake
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Flynn#827 · Bjorn#829 · Ignacio#829 · Jefferson#829 · Nelson#824 · Yisroel#824 · Jettson#824 · Rayden#832
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Drake? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Drake and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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