Dekker
A Dutch surname transferred to masculine given name meaning "roofer" or "thatcher".
Name Census estimates that about 358 living Americans carry the first name Dekker. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dekker today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dekker births was 2019 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dekker. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
358
~ 1 in 957,414 Americans
Peak year
2019
35 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,956
Tracked since 2006
Census
Dekker in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 293 people with the first name Dekker, which placed it at #29,959 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#29,959
National first-name rank
People counted
293
293 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dekker
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dekker is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.5%) and Hispanic (6.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dekker described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dekker at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.6% · 245
- Two or more races8.5% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 18
- Black or African American1.0% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 1
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Dekker: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dekker from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 232 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Dekker remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dekker by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dekker during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dekkers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Wisconsin, California, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Dekker, while North Dakota, Minnesota, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dekker
The name Dekker has its origins in the Dutch language and culture, dating back to the late Middle Ages and Renaissance period in the Low Countries. It is believed to have derived from the occupational surname "de Decker," which referred to a roofer or thatcher, someone who laid roofs or thatched houses for a living.
The name is thought to have evolved from the Middle Dutch word "decker," which meant "coverer" or "roofer." It is related to the modern Dutch word "dekker," meaning "thatcher" or "roofer." In some cases, the name may have also been associated with the Dutch word "dek," meaning "cover" or "deck," implying a connection to those who worked on the decks of ships or constructed coverings or shelters.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dekker can be found in the 14th century, when a Flemish writer and poet, Hendrik Dekker, was active in the 1300s. He is considered one of the pioneers of Middle Dutch literature and is known for his didactic and religious works.
In the 16th century, the name gained prominence with the Dutch Renaissance playwright and poet, Joost van den Vondel, also known as Joost van den Vondel Dekker. Born in 1587, he is regarded as one of the most significant figures in Dutch literature and is celebrated for his plays, including "Gysbreght van Aemstel" and "Lucifer."
Another notable figure with the name Dekker was the English Renaissance dramatist and pamphleteer, Thomas Dekker, who lived from around 1572 to 1632. He was a prolific writer and is best known for his plays, such as "The Shoemaker's Holiday" and "The Honest Whore," as well as his contributions to various city pageants and pamphlets.
In the 19th century, the name was carried by the Dutch writer and theologian Eduard Douwes Dekker, better known by his pen name Multatuli. Born in 1820, he is remembered for his influential novel "Max Havelaar," which exposed the exploitation of the Dutch East Indies and was a catalyst for social and political reform.
Another significant figure with the name Dekker was the Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, whose full name was Hendrik Antoon Lorentz Onnes Dekker. Born in 1853, he is renowned for his groundbreaking work on low-temperature physics and the liquefaction of gases, particularly helium, earning him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913.
People
Dekker + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dekker as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dekker: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dekker?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 358 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dekker going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 957,414 US residents.
Is Dekker a common name?
We classify Dekker as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 361 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dekker most popular?
The single biggest year for Dekker was 2019, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dekker is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dekker in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 293 people with the name Dekker, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,959 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dekker in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dekker?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dekker leans strongly male. 282 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 4 female bearers (1.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dekker?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dekker is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.5%) and Hispanic (6.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dekker most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dekker in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.6% (245 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dekker in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dekker a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dekker in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Dekker still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dekker in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dekker can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Dekker?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.