Dereon
Stylized spelling representing a combination of the French words "de reon" or "of the river".
Name Census estimates that about 1,554 living Americans carry the first name Dereon. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Dereon today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dereon births was 2008 (316 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dereon. 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
- • Dereon is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 220,563 Americans
Peak year
2008
316 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,456
Tracked since 1990
Census
Dereon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,145 people with the first name Dereon, which placed it at #11,291 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
#11,291
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,145 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
86.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dereon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dereon is Black at 86.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.8%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Dereon 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 Dereon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American86.7% · 993
- Hispanic or Latino5.8% · 66
- Two or more races5.1% · 58
- White1.1% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Dereon
Dereon is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,570 total registrations, 1,203 (76.6%) were male and 367 (23.4%) were female.
Dereon as a male name
- Ranked #8,456 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (238 births)
Dereon as a female name
- Ranked #13,061 in 2017
- 7 female births in 2017
- Peak: 2009 (91 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dereon on both sides of the split. Of the 1,138 people counted with this name, 878 were male (77.2%) and 260 were female (22.8%).
Popularity
Dereon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dereon from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 954 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dereon 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 Dereon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dereons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. Texas, Florida, Illinois recorded the most babies named Dereon, while Minnesota, Arkansas, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dereon
The name Dereon is a relatively modern creation, likely originating in the late 20th century. It does not appear to have any direct linguistic or cultural roots in ancient languages or civilizations. The name seems to be a combination of two more common names, Deon and Derek, possibly influenced by the African American name Derrick.
While the exact origin of Dereon is uncertain, it may have been inspired by the fashion designer Dereon Simmons, who launched a clothing line called Dereon in the early 2000s. Dereon Simmons is the sister of famous rapper and entrepreneur Sean "Diddy" Combs, who helped promote and market the Dereon brand.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Dereon can be found in the birth records of North Carolina in the early 2000s. It is possible that parents were inspired by the Dereon fashion line and chose to name their children after it.
Throughout history, there are a few notable individuals who have carried the name Dereon. Dereon Greer (born in 1973) is an American basketball player who played in the NBA and several professional leagues in Europe. Dereon Hudson (born in 1992) is a professional basketball player from the United States who currently plays for Levallois Metropolitans in France.
Another individual named Dereon is Dereon Gordon (born in 1994), an American basketball player who played college basketball for the University of Massachusetts. Dereon Sexton (born in 1998) is a professional basketball player from the United States who plays for the Oklahoma City Blue in the NBA G League.
While not an extensive historical record, these few examples demonstrate that the name Dereon has been embraced by some individuals, particularly in the world of sports and entertainment, reflecting its modern and unique origins.
People
Dereon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dereon 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
Dereon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dereon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,554 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dereon 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 220,563 US residents.
Is Dereon a common name?
We classify Dereon as "Rare". It ranks above 92.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,570 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dereon most popular?
The single biggest year for Dereon was 2008, when 316 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dereon is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dereon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,145 people with the name Dereon, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,291 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 Dereon 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 Dereon?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dereon on both sides of the split. Of the 1,138 people counted with this name, 878 were male (77.2%) and 260 were female (22.8%). 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 Dereon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dereon is Black at 86.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.8%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Dereon most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Dereon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.7% (993 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 Dereon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dereon a male name?
Yes, 76.6% of people registered as Dereon 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 Dereon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dereon 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 Dereon 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 have Dereon as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Dereon, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.