Derek — #258 US boys' name

What the Data Says About Derek

The Social Security Administration has registered 237,860 babies named Derek between 1924 and 2024, spanning 101 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Derek currently holds the #258 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1989, when 8,365 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Derek performed strongest in the 1980s, accumulating 72,927 births during that ten-year window. Across the 11 decades of recorded activity, Derek shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in California, which accounts for 26,599 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Texas and New York. In total, SSA state-level files list Derek in 51 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Derek in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 237,860 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.