Derek
A masculine name of English origin meaning "holding the people".
Name Census estimates that about 226,565 living Americans carry the first name Derek. It sits at #258 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Derek today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Derek births was 1989 (8,402 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Derek. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Derek is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 909 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
227K
~ 1 in 1,513 Americans
Peak year
1989
8,402 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#258
Tracked since 1924
Gender
Gender distribution for Derek
Out of the 238,769 babies given the name Derek since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Derek as a male name
- Ranked #258 in 2024
- 1,355 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1989 (8,365 births)
Derek as a female name
- Ranked #17,482 in 2011
- 5 female births in 2011
- Peak: 1987 (57 births)
Popularity
Derek: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Derek from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 73,385 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Derek 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 Derek during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dereks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Derek, while Wyoming, Delaware, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,636 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Derek
The name Derek derives from the Germanic elements "deer", meaning beast or brave, and "ric", meaning ruler or power. It originated as a personal name among the Anglo-Saxon people in England during the early medieval period, around the 5th to 7th centuries AD.
One of the earliest known references to the name Derek appears in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landowners in England compiled in 1086 under the orders of William the Conqueror. The name is listed as "Derric" in this text.
Derek was a relatively common name among the English nobility throughout the Middle Ages. One notable bearer of the name was Derek of Yorkshire, a 12th-century landowner and knight who fought in the Crusades. Another was Derek de Lacy, a 13th-century English nobleman and military commander during the reign of King John.
In the 15th century, the name Derek appeared in Scottish records, likely due to the influence of Anglo-Norman settlers in the region. One of the earliest Scottish references is to Derek Stewart, a 15th-century nobleman and ancestor of the later Stewart monarchs.
The name saw a resurgence in popularity during the Victorian era in the 19th century. Famous individuals named Derek from this period include Derek Parfit (1842-1925), a British philosopher and writer, and Derek Jacobi (1819-1892), a renowned English stage actor.
Other notable people named Derek throughout history include Derek Walcott (1930-2017), a Nobel Prize-winning Caribbean poet and playwright; Derek Jarman (1942-1994), an influential English filmmaker and artist; Derek Trucks (born 1979), an American guitarist and founder of the Derek Trucks Band; and Derek Jeter (born 1974), a former professional baseball player and shortstop for the New York Yankees.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Derek
People
Derek + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Derek 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
Derek: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Derek?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 226,565 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Derek 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 1,513 US residents.
Is Derek a common name?
We classify Derek as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 238,769 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Derek most popular?
The single biggest year for Derek was 1989, when 8,402 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Derek is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Derek a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Derek 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.
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.