Dierks
A German masculine name derived from Dietrich, meaning "powerful ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 295 living Americans carry the first name Dierks. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dierks today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dierks births was 2015 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dierks. 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
295
~ 1 in 1,161,879 Americans
Peak year
2015
29 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,703
Tracked since 2005
Popularity
Dierks: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dierks 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 180 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Dierks remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dierks 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 Dierks during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dierks' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Dierks
The given name Dierks is of German origin, derived from the Old German name Dietrich or Theodoric. This name can be traced back to the 5th century and is a compound of the Germanic elements "diet" meaning "people" and "ric" meaning "ruler" or "king." The name essentially translates to "ruler of the people."
The earliest known bearers of the name Dierks were Germanic tribes, particularly the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, who inhabited parts of modern-day Germany, Austria, and Eastern Europe during the Migration Period. The name gained prominence through various historical figures, such as Theodoric the Great, the king of the Ostrogoths who ruled Italy from 493 to 526 AD.
In the Middle Ages, the name Dierks and its variants, such as Diederik and Dieter, were popular among the nobility and ruling classes in German-speaking regions. Some notable historical figures include Dietrich von Bern, a legendary hero from the German epic poem "Nibelungenlied," and Dietrich of Nieheim, a 14th-century German scholar and bishop.
As the name spread throughout Europe, it acquired various spellings and regional variations. In the Low German regions, it was often spelled as Dierks or Dirks, while in the Netherlands, it became Diederik or Dirk. One of the most famous bearers of this name was Dirk Hartog, a Dutch explorer who landed on the western coast of Australia in 1616 and is considered the first European to set foot on Australian soil.
In the 19th century, the name Dierks experienced a resurgence in popularity, particularly in Germany and the German-speaking regions of Europe. Notable individuals with this name include Dierks Hessling, a German artist and painter born in 1852, and Dierks Bolten, a German painter and illustrator born in 1881.
While the name Dierks has remained relatively uncommon in modern times, it has maintained a strong connection to its Germanic heritage and continues to be used as a given name, particularly in German-speaking countries and communities with German cultural influences.
People
Dierks + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dierks 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
Dierks: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dierks?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 295 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dierks 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 1,161,879 US residents.
Is Dierks a common name?
We classify Dierks as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 297 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dierks most popular?
The single biggest year for Dierks was 2015, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dierks is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Dierks a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dierks 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.