Theodric
Of Germanic origin meaning "people's ruler" or "powerful leader".
Name Census estimates that about 21 living Americans carry the first name Theodric. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Theodric today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Theodric births was 1977 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Theodric. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Theodric. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
21
~ 1 in 16,321,635 Americans
Peak year
1977
6 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
1992 SSA rank
#8,351
Tracked since 1926
Popularity
Theodric: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Theodric from the 1920s through to the 1990s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 16 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Theodric remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Theodric 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 Theodric during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Theodric
Theodric is a masculine given name of Germanic origin, deriving from the Old English and Old High German words "þēod" meaning "people" and "rīc" meaning "ruler" or "king." It can be interpreted as "ruler of the people" or "leader of the nation." This name dates back to the early medieval period and was particularly popular among the Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic tribes.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Theodric can be found in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by the Venerable Bede in the 8th century. Bede mentions a Theodric who served as the King of the Bernicians, a powerful Anglian kingdom in what is now northern England and southern Scotland.
In the 9th century, a Frankish nobleman named Theodric the Great served as the Duke of Saxony and played a prominent role in the Christianization of the region. He is also known for his military campaigns against the Vikings and his efforts to secure the borders of the Carolingian Empire.
During the 11th century, a figure named Theodric the Elder was a prominent scholar and philosopher in the Holy Roman Empire. He is known for his writings on logic and metaphysics, which influenced the development of scholastic thought in medieval Europe.
In the 12th century, a monk named Theodric of Paderborn wrote several religious texts, including a hagiography of St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury who was famously murdered in 1170.
Another notable figure with the name Theodric was a 13th-century Benedictine abbot and chronicler from the monastery of St. Trond in present-day Belgium. His Chronicles of St. Trond provide valuable insights into the political and ecclesiastical history of the region during that time.
While the name Theodric has fallen out of common usage in modern times, it remains an important part of the historical record, reflecting the cultural and linguistic heritage of the Germanic peoples and their impact on the development of medieval Europe.
People
Theodric + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Theodric as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Theodric: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Theodric?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Theodric 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 16,321,635 US residents.
Is Theodric a common name?
We classify Theodric as "Very Rare". It ranks above 40.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 27 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Theodric most popular?
The single biggest year for Theodric was 1977, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Theodric is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Theodric a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Theodric 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.
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.