Diedra
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly derived from the French name Théodore.
Name Census estimates that about 1,619 living Americans carry the first name Diedra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Diedra today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Diedra births was 1961 (87 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Diedra. 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
1.6K
~ 1 in 211,707 Americans
Peak year
1961
87 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2004 SSA rank
#16,843
Tracked since 1944
Census
Diedra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,589 people with the first name Diedra, which placed it at #8,945 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
#8,945
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,589 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Diedra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Diedra is White at 44.7%. The next largest groups are Black (43.9%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Diedra 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 Diedra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.7% · 711
- Black or African American43.9% · 697
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 73
- Two or more races4.5% · 71
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 11
Popularity
Diedra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Diedra from the 1940s through to the 2000s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 653 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Diedra 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 Diedra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Diedras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. Texas, California, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Diedra, while Georgia, Alabama, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 45 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Diedra
The name Diedra is a variant of the Greek name Theodora, which means "gift of God." It originated in the Byzantine Empire during the 5th century AD. The name was popular among the ruling class and nobility in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Diedra is a feminine form of the male name Theodore, which was derived from the Greek words "theos" meaning "god" and "doron" meaning "gift." The name Theodora was borne by several notable Byzantine empresses, including Theodora, the wife of Emperor Justinian I, who ruled in the 6th century AD.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Diedra can be found in the medieval English annals of the 12th century, where it was spelled as "Diedra" or "Diedre." During this period, the name was likely introduced to England by Norman settlers who brought it from France, where it was a variant of the French name "Théodore."
In the 13th century, a noblewoman named Diedra de Anglia was recorded as a landowner in the county of Norfolk, England. Another early bearer of the name was Diedra de Montfort, a French noblewoman who lived in the late 12th century and was related to the prominent de Montfort family.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Diedra, including:
1. Diedra of Saxony (c. 1200-1272), a German princess and abbess of the Quedlinburg Abbey.
2. Diedra di Cosimo (1432-1475), an Italian Renaissance painter and one of the few known female artists of the 15th century.
3. Diedra Browne (1648-1711), an English poet and playwright during the Restoration period.
4. Diedra von Arnim (1785-1859), a German writer and member of the Prussian nobility, known for her novels and correspondence with notable figures like Goethe and Bettina von Arnim.
5. Diedra Monteith (1870-1957), a Scottish suffragist and campaigner for women's rights in the early 20th century.
While the name Diedra has waxed and waned in popularity over the centuries, it has maintained a presence in various cultures and regions, carrying the symbolic meaning of a "gift from God" with its rich historical lineage.
People
Diedra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Diedra 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
Diedra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Diedra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,619 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Diedra 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 211,707 US residents.
Is Diedra a common name?
We classify Diedra as "Rare". It ranks above 92.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,918 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Diedra most popular?
The single biggest year for Diedra was 1961, when 87 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Diedra is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Diedra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,589 people with the name Diedra, or 0.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,945 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 Diedra 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 Diedra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Diedra appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,586 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Diedra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Diedra is White at 44.7%. The next largest groups are Black (43.9%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Diedra most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Diedra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.7% (711 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 Diedra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Diedra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Diedra in the SSA data are female. 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 Diedra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Diedra 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 Diedra 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 the name Diedra?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Diedra on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.