Derrell
A masculine name of English origin meaning "from the deer valley".
Name Census estimates that about 4,655 living Americans carry the first name Derrell. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Derrell today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Derrell births was 1987 (136 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Derrell. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Derrell with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 73,631 Americans
Peak year
1987
136 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,833
Tracked since 1909
Census
Derrell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,555 people with the first name Derrell, which placed it at #4,991 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
#4,991
National first-name rank
People counted
3.6K
3,555 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
58.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Derrell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Derrell is Black at 58.2%. The next largest groups are White (34.9%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Derrell 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 Derrell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American58.2% · 2,070
- White34.9% · 1,239
- Two or more races3.8% · 134
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 73
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Derrell
Out of the 5,871 babies given the name Derrell since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Derrell as a male name
- Ranked #10,111 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1987 (136 births)
Derrell as a female name
- Ranked #6,833 in 1963
- 5 female births in 1963
- Peak: 1956 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Derrell leans strongly male. 3,483 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 73 female bearers (2.1%).
Popularity
Derrell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Derrell from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 1,017 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
Derrell 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 Derrell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Derrells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, California recorded the most babies named Derrell, while Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 118 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Derrell
The name Derrell is of English origin and dates back to the Middle Ages. It is a variant spelling of the name Darrell, which is derived from the Old French surname D'Airelle, meaning "from Arella." Arella was a town in Normandy, France, suggesting that the name may have originated among Norman nobility who settled in England after the Norman Conquest in 1066.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Derrell can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a survey of land ownership commissioned by William the Conqueror. The entry lists a landowner named Derrell in the county of Sussex.
During the Middle Ages, the name Derrell was primarily used by members of the English gentry and aristocracy. In the 13th century, a knight named Sir Derrell de Vere fought in the Crusades and is mentioned in several chronicles of the time.
In the 16th century, a prominent figure named Derrell Fitzwilliam served as a courtier to King Henry VIII. He is recorded in several court documents and is believed to have been involved in the dissolution of the monasteries.
In the 17th century, a Puritan minister named Derrell Goodwin became a prominent figure during the English Civil War. He was a vocal supporter of Oliver Cromwell and authored several religious treatises that were widely read at the time.
Another notable person with the name Derrell was an English explorer named Derrell Hawkins, who sailed with Sir Francis Drake on his circumnavigation of the globe in the late 16th century. Hawkins wrote a detailed account of their voyage, which remains an important historical document.
While the name Derrell has never been extremely common, it has persisted throughout English history, often associated with individuals of notable social standing or accomplishment.
People
Derrell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Derrell 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
Derrell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Derrell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,655 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Derrell 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 73,631 US residents.
Is Derrell a common name?
We classify Derrell as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,871 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Derrell most popular?
The single biggest year for Derrell was 1987, when 136 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Derrell is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Derrell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,555 people with the name Derrell, or 1.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,991 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 Derrell 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 Derrell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Derrell leans strongly male. 3,483 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 73 female bearers (2.1%). 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 Derrell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Derrell is Black at 58.2%. The next largest groups are White (34.9%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Derrell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Derrell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.2% (2,070 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 Derrell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Derrell a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Derrell 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 Derrell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Derrell 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 Derrell 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 Americans are named Derrell?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.