Drina
A feminine name, derived from the Sanskrit word "Dri" meaning "river."
Name Census estimates that about 225 living Americans carry the first name Drina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Drina today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Drina births was 1946 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Drina. 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 Drina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
225
~ 1 in 1,523,353 Americans
Peak year
1946
12 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2020 SSA rank
#13,877
Tracked since 1938
Census
Drina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 390 people with the first name Drina, which placed it at #24,620 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
#24,620
National first-name rank
People counted
390
390 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Drina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Drina is White at 41.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.7%) and Black (20.3%). 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 Drina 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 Drina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.5% · 162
- Hispanic or Latino29.7% · 116
- Black or African American20.3% · 79
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.1% · 16
- Two or more races2.8% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 6
Popularity
Drina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Drina from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 57 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Drina 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 Drina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Drinas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Drina
The name Drina is of Slavic origin, specifically from the Serbian language. It is derived from the name of the Drina River, which flows through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia. The river's name is believed to come from the Proto-Indo-European root *deru-, meaning "firm" or "solid," possibly referring to the river's strength or its rocky banks.
The earliest recorded use of the name Drina dates back to the 19th century in Serbia and the surrounding regions. It gained popularity as a feminine given name in honor of the Drina River, which holds cultural and historical significance for the Serbian people.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Drina was Drina Pavlović (1855-1941), a Serbian feminist and women's rights activist. She played a pivotal role in advocating for women's education and equal rights in Serbia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Another notable figure with the name Drina was Drina Mladenović (1890-1962), a Serbian painter and one of the first female artists to gain recognition in her country. Her works often depicted scenes from rural life and the Serbian countryside.
In the field of literature, Drina Jović (1900-1981) was a Serbian writer and poet known for her contributions to children's literature. Her poems and stories aimed to educate and entertain young readers while preserving Serbian cultural traditions.
Drina Kandić (born 1944) is a prominent Serbian human rights activist and the founder of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade. She has dedicated her life to documenting and advocating against human rights violations in the Balkans, particularly during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.
More recently, Drina Nikolic (born 1972) is a Serbian singer and songwriter who has achieved success in the popular music scene in Serbia and other Balkan countries. Her music often incorporates traditional Serbian folk elements with modern pop influences.
While the name Drina has its roots in the Serbian language and culture, it has also gained some popularity in other Slavic countries and communities around the world, particularly among those with Serbian heritage or connections.
People
Drina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Drina 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
Drina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Drina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 225 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Drina 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 1,523,353 US residents.
Is Drina a common name?
We classify Drina as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 263 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Drina most popular?
The single biggest year for Drina was 1946, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Drina is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Drina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 390 people with the name Drina, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,620 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 Drina 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 Drina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Drina leans strongly female. 391 people counted with this name were female (98.0%), compared with 8 male bearers (2.0%). 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 Drina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Drina is White at 41.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.7%) and Black (20.3%). 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 Drina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Drina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.5% (162 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 Drina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Drina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Drina 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 Drina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Drina 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 Drina 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 are called Drina?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.