Drue
A modern feminine name of unknown meaning and origin.
Name Census estimates that about 1,978 living Americans carry the first name Drue. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 54.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Drue today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Drue births was 2023 (98 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Drue. 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 Drue with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Drue sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 173,283 Americans
Peak year
2023
98 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,930
Tracked since 1893
Census
Drue in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,609 people with the first name Drue, which placed it at #8,868 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
#8,868
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,609 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Drue
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Drue is White at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Black (10.6%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Drue 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 Drue at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.4% · 1,246
- Black or African American10.6% · 171
- Two or more races5.9% · 95
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 74
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Drue
Drue is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,332 total registrations, 1,269 (54.4%) were male and 1,063 (45.6%) were female.
Drue as a male name
- Ranked #3,165 in 2024
- 38 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (46 births)
Drue as a female name
- Ranked #2,930 in 2024
- 56 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (56 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Drue on both sides of the split. Of the 1,603 people counted with this name, 872 were male (54.4%) and 731 were female (45.6%).
Popularity
Drue: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Drue from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 389 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Drue 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 Drue during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Drues live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. Texas, Maryland, California recorded the most babies named Drue, while Michigan, Louisiana, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Drue
The name Drue has its roots in the Old English language, dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain. It is believed to be derived from the Old English word "dryge," which means "dry" or "arid." The name may have been originally used as a descriptive term for someone who lived in a dry or arid region, or perhaps as a nickname for someone with a dry or reserved personality.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Drue can be found in the Domesday Book, a great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears in various spellings, such as "Drue," "Dru," and "Dryw," which suggests that it was already in use among the Anglo-Saxons before the Norman Conquest.
In medieval times, the name Drue was relatively uncommon but can be found in various historical records and documents. One notable figure was Drue Barantyn, a wealthy merchant and benefactor who lived in London in the 14th century. He is mentioned in several records from the City of London archives, and his name is inscribed on the church of St. Olave's in Hart Street, where he was buried in 1399.
Another historical figure bearing the name Drue was Sir Drue Drury, an English soldier and statesman who lived in the 16th century (c. 1520-1617). He served as Lord Deputy of Ireland and played a significant role in suppressing the Desmond Rebellions in the 1570s and 1580s.
In the realm of literature, the name Drue appears in some early English works, such as the Middle English romance "Sir Degrevant," where a character named Drue is mentioned. Additionally, in the 16th century, the English poet and playwright John Lyly used the name Drue for a character in his play "Endymion, or The Man in the Moon."
Another notable bearer of the name Drue was Drue Cargill (1619-1681), a Scottish Covenanter who was executed for his involvement in the Bothwell Bridge Rebellion against the Scottish government in 1679.
While the name Drue has been relatively rare throughout history, it has been borne by several other individuals of note, including Drue Smith (1638-1684), an English Baptist minister and author, and Drue Leyton (fl. 1570-1590), an English composer and musician during the Renaissance period.
People
Drue + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Drue 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
Drue: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Drue?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,978 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Drue 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 173,283 US residents.
Is Drue a common name?
We classify Drue as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,332 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Drue most popular?
The single biggest year for Drue was 2023, when 98 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Drue is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Drue in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,609 people with the name Drue, or 0.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,868 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 Drue 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 Drue?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Drue on both sides of the split. Of the 1,603 people counted with this name, 872 were male (54.4%) and 731 were female (45.6%). 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 Drue?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Drue is White at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Black (10.6%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Drue most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Drue in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.4% (1,246 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 Drue in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Drue a male name?
Yes, 54.4% of people registered as Drue 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 Drue still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Drue 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 Drue 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 Drue as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.