Drucilla
Feminine · “little Drusus”
Drucilla writes with a c what Latin wrote with an s. The Roman name is Drusilla, the small form of a family name, and the family name itself came out of a story that Roman historians told with some relish about how a man could acquire a surname by killing someone.
How old is the name Drucilla?
Drucilla was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Drucilla alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 1,800 people named Drucilla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Drucilla most popular?
Drucilla peaked in 1883, reaching #651 nationally. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Drusus to Drucilla
The story of Drucilla
Livy reports that a Roman commander killed an enemy leader named Drausus in single combat and took the dead man's name as his own honor, and that the family called Drusus descends from him. Roman families collected surnames that way, and also from physical defects, from vegetables and from accidents, so the story is at least in character. The name went into the imperial house — Livia's son, Germanicus's daughter — and out of it into the New Testament, where a Drusilla appears as the wife of the governor who kept Paul in prison. Puritan families took it from there, and America has carried it, mostly with a c, ever since.
Meaningscholars disagree
little Drusus
Drusilla is the diminutive of the Roman family name Drusus. What Drusus itself meant is not known; the Romans had a story about it, and the story may well be a later invention to explain a name nobody understood.
How the name formed
- Drusus
- Drusilla
- Drucilla
Related forms: Drusilla · Drusila
Pronouncing Drucilla
droo-SIL-uh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. The c is said as an s, exactly as the Latin spelling would have it, which is why the respelling costs nothing.
Nicknames for Drucilla
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 195174 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #651reached in 1883
- Change vs 2013
- 0.0%5 in 2024, 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.
Drucilla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Drusilla in Latin — spelling variant
- Drusila in Spanish — spelling variant
Drucillas among us
people named Drucilla 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
Drucilla 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 despite the unusual spelling, because the c can only be soft there.
- Dru and Cilla are ready short forms with completely different characters.
- It has a documented Roman and biblical history, which very few three-syllable names can claim.
- Drusilla is the standard spelling and will be written instead.
- The name is closely tied to the nineteenth century and reads as belonging to it.
- Its Roman bearers are not a flattering set, and a family that looks them up will find that out.
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Drucilla
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Drucillas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Drucilla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Drucilla in 2025?
- Drucilla is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Drucilla with classmates?
- Drucilla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Drucilla? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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