Drea
A feminine name derived from the Greek name "Andrea," meaning "womanly" or "feminine."
Name Census estimates that about 832 living Americans carry the first name Drea. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Drea today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Drea births was 2005 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Drea. 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
832
~ 1 in 411,964 Americans
Peak year
2005
50 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,391
Tracked since 1973
Popularity
Drea: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Drea from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 348 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Drea remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Drea 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 Drea during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dreas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Drea, while South Carolina, Michigan, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Drea
The given name Drea is believed to have originated from the Old English word "drearig," which means "dreary" or "sorrowful." It is a feminine form of the name Andrew, which has Greek roots and means "manly" or "brave." The name Drea likely emerged as a diminutive or shortened version of Andrew in the medieval period.
Drea was a relatively uncommon name in ancient times, but it gained popularity in certain regions of Europe during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Drea can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The book mentions a woman named Drea who resided in the county of Oxfordshire.
In the 12th century, a French noblewoman named Drea de Montfort was a prominent figure during the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France. She was known for her fierce loyalty to the Catholic Church and her role in the siege of the city of Toulouse.
During the Renaissance period, Drea was the name of an Italian painter and engraver who lived in the 16th century. Drea di Nittis, born in 1541, was renowned for her landscape paintings depicting the countryside around Rome.
In the 18th century, Drea von Buren was a German botanist and naturalist who made significant contributions to the study of plant taxonomy. She was born in 1720 and published several influential works on the classification of plants during her lifetime.
In more recent history, Drea Barnes was an American poet and activist who lived from 1892 to 1976. She was a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement and advocated for civil rights and social justice through her poetry and writings.
While the name Drea has been used throughout history, it has remained relatively uncommon compared to other names. Its origins can be traced back to Old English and medieval times, and it has been borne by notable individuals in various fields, including nobility, art, science, and literature.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Drea
People
Drea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Drea 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
Drea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Drea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 832 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Drea 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 411,964 US residents.
Is Drea a common name?
We classify Drea 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, 843 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Drea most popular?
The single biggest year for Drea was 2005, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Drea is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Drea a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Drea 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.
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.