Dre
A diminutive of the French name André, meaning "manly and brave".
Name Census estimates that about 833 living Americans carry the first name Dre. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Dre today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dre births was 1993 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dre. 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 Dre with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
833
~ 1 in 411,470 Americans
Peak year
1993
56 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,213
Tracked since 1989
Census
Dre in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,731 people with the first name Dre, which placed it at #8,387 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
#8,387
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,731 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dre
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dre is Black at 53.9%. The next largest groups are White (18.1%) and Hispanic (14.9%). 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 Dre 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 Dre at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.9% · 933
- White18.1% · 314
- Hispanic or Latino14.9% · 258
- Two or more races8.3% · 143
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 43
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.3% · 40
Gender
Gender distribution for Dre
Out of the 844 babies given the name Dre since 1880, 99.4% 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.
Dre as a male name
- Ranked #4,213 in 2024
- 25 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (56 births)
Dre as a female name
- Ranked #16,178 in 2019
- 5 female births in 2019
- Peak: 2019 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dre leans strongly male. 1,614 people counted with this name were male (93.4%), compared with 114 female bearers (6.6%).
Popularity
Dre: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dre from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 276 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Dre remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dre 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 Dre during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dres live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, California, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Dre, while Louisiana, California, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dre
The name Dre is a modern diminutive or nickname form derived from the French name André. André itself can be traced back to the Greek name Andreas, which was composed of the elements andr, meaning "man" or "warrior," and andres, meaning "manly" or "virile." The name Andreas was borne by one of the Twelve Apostles in the New Testament and later became popular throughout the Christian world.
In the Middle Ages, the name André was particularly common in France, where it was often spelled André or Andri. It was also used in England during this time, although it was less widespread. The diminutive form Dre likely emerged as a casual nickname or pet name for André in French-speaking regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dre can be found in the writings of the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596-1650), who was known to his friends and family as "Dre." Similarly, the French composer and organist André Campra (1660-1744) was sometimes referred to as "Dre Campra."
In more recent history, the name Dre gained wider recognition through its association with several notable figures. André "Dre" Benjamin (born 1975) is an American rapper, actor, and singer-songwriter best known as one-half of the hip-hop duo OutKast. Another prominent bearer of the name is Andre "Dr. Dre" Romelle Young (born 1965), the American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur who co-founded the influential rap group N.W.A. and later launched the highly successful Aftermath Entertainment label.
Other notable individuals with the first name Dre include André "Dre" Gribou (born 1973), a French professional basketball player; André "Dre" Browne (born 1973), a Barbadian cricketer; and André "Dre" Berto (born 1983), an American professional boxer. These individuals have helped to maintain the name's visibility and relevance across various fields and cultures.
People
Dre + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dre 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
Dre: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dre?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 833 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dre 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 411,470 US residents.
Is Dre a common name?
We classify Dre as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 844 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dre most popular?
The single biggest year for Dre was 1993, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dre is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dre in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,731 people with the name Dre, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,387 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 Dre 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 Dre?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dre leans strongly male. 1,614 people counted with this name were male (93.4%), compared with 114 female bearers (6.6%). 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 Dre?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dre is Black at 53.9%. The next largest groups are White (18.1%) and Hispanic (14.9%). 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 Dre most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Dre in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.9% (933 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 Dre in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dre a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Dre 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 Dre still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dre 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 Dre 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 share the name Dre?
Find out how many people share the name Dre on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.