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
Census
Drea in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,024 people with the first name Drea, which placed it at #12,218 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
#12,218
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,024 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Drea
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Drea is White at 41.9%. The next largest groups are Black (28.4%) and Hispanic (17.8%). 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 Drea 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 Drea at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.9% · 429
- Black or African American28.4% · 291
- Hispanic or Latino17.8% · 182
- Two or more races8.5% · 87
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 12
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.
How common was Drea in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,024 people with the name Drea, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,218 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 Drea 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 Drea?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Drea leans strongly female. 952 people counted with this name were female (93.1%), compared with 71 male bearers (6.9%). 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 Drea?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Drea is White at 41.9%. The next largest groups are Black (28.4%) and Hispanic (17.8%). 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 Drea most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Drea in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.9% (429 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 Drea in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Drea still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Drea 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 Drea 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 Drea as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.