Drusilla
Feminine · “from the Roman family name Drusus”
Roman cognomens could be won. Suetonius reports that a member of the Livian family killed an enemy commander named Drausus in single combat and took the dead man's name for his own line, which is how Drusus entered the Roman aristocracy. Drusilla is its diminutive, and it belonged to the family that became the imperial house.
How old is the name Drusilla?
Drusilla was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Drusilla alive today was born around 1946, making them about 79 years old. About 1,500 people named Drusilla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Drusilla most popular?
Drusilla peaked in 1886, reaching #606 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,311 places below that high. See the whole 1886 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Drausus to Drusilla
The story of Drusilla
Drusus belonged to the Livii and then, by marriage, to the Julio-Claudians, which is why the name appears repeatedly in the first century: it was an inheritance rather than a choice. A Drusilla also turns up in the New Testament, in Acts, as the wife of the Roman governor who keeps Paul in custody for two years and sends for him because he wants to hear him talk. That is unusual — very few women in the New Testament carry Roman names — and it is how Drusilla reached Christian Europe, where it was picked up by English Puritans looking through the scriptures for names nobody else was using. They found this one, and it stayed in American use for three centuries.
Meaningscholars disagree
from the Roman family name Drusus
Drusilla is the feminine diminutive of Drusus, a Roman cognomen with no meaning as an ordinary word. The account of its origin — taken from a defeated enemy called Drausus — is the one the Romans themselves gave, and Roman explanations of their own family names are frequently stories rather than history. Nothing better has replaced it.
How the name formed
- Drausus
- Drusus
- Drusilla
Related forms: Drusilla · Drusila
Pronouncing Drusilla
droo-SIL-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Latin and Italian say it the same way. There is no second reading to worry about.
Nicknames for Drusilla
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
- 195168 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #606reached in 1886
- Change vs 2021
- −11.1%8 in 2025, from 9
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.
Drusilla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Drusilla in Italian — same name
- Drusila in Spanish — spelling variant
Drusillas among us
people named Drusilla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Drusilla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Drusilla 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
Drusilla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Drusilla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented two-thousand-year record with named bearers in both Roman and biblical history.
- The stress is unambiguous and the spelling phonetic.
- Dru works as a short form and is used by men and women alike.
- It is strongly represented among the oldest generations and reads as distinctly Victorian.
- American television gave the name to a memorable vampire in the late 1990s, and viewers of a certain age will say so.
- The first syllable invites obvious rhymes, and children will find them.
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What they receive
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Drusilla
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Drusillas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Drusilla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Drusilla in 2025?
- Drusilla ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Drusilla?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Drusilla — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Drusilla with classmates?
- Drusilla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Drusilla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Adell#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Drusilla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Drusilla and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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