Derrick
Derrick was given to 288 boys in 2025, #850 among boys’ names; 146,344 Americans have been recorded with it since 1917 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 134,000 Americans named Derrick and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (91% of everyone recorded); the median is 42 years old and half are between 32 and 53.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Derrick by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Derrick mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Derrick is “a male given name from the Germanic languages, variant of Derek.”
/ˈdɛɹɪk/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Derrick?
#850 among boys’ names, 2025
Derrick fell from #384 in 2015 to #850 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.44 to 0.17 per 1,000.
4,171 babies in 1980, the peak
Derrick peaked in 1980, when 4,171 babies were given it (4,135 boys, #74 among boys’ names). The 288 births of 2025 are 7% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 288 | #850 | 0.17 |
| 2024 | 308 | #813 | 0.18 |
| 2023 | 344 | #758 | 0.20 |
| 2022 | 370 | #713 | 0.21 |
| 2021 | 458 | #606 | 0.26 |
| 2020 | 518 | #549 | 0.30 |
| 2019 | 580 | #494 | 0.32 |
| 2018 | 610 | #479 | 0.34 |
| 2017 | 702 | #442 | 0.38 |
| 2016 | 748 | #421 | 0.39 |
Every recorded year (98)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 835 | #384 | 0.44 |
| 2014 | 914 | #353 | 0.48 |
| 2013 | 981 | #330 | 0.52 |
| 2012 | 1,053 | #313 | 0.56 |
| 2011 | 1,098 | #301 | 0.58 |
| 2010 | 1,038 | #307 | 0.54 |
| 2009 | 1,115 | #296 | 0.56 |
| 2008 | 1,197 | #285 | 0.59 |
| 2007 | 1,295 | #267 | 0.62 |
| 2006 | 1,362 | #254 | 0.66 |
| 2005 | 1,372 | #245 | 0.69 |
| 2004 | 1,324 | #248 | 0.67 |
| 2003 | 1,378 | #244 | 0.70 |
| 2002 | 1,437 | #236 | 0.74 |
| 2001 | 1,455 | #232 | 0.75 |
| 2000 | 1,596 | #218 | 0.81 |
| 1999 | 1,614 | #213 | 0.84 |
| 1998 | 1,756 | #194 | 0.92 |
| 1997 | 1,784 | #188 | 0.95 |
| 1996 | 1,995 | #169 | 1.1 |
| 1995 | 2,190 | #159 | 1.2 |
| 1994 | 2,575 | #136 | 1.3 |
| 1993 | 2,704 | #129 | 1.4 |
| 1992 | 2,914 | #120 | 1.5 |
| 1991 | 3,096 | #111 | 1.5 |
| 1990 | 3,363 | #106 | 1.6 |
| 1989 | 3,442 | #99 | 1.7 |
| 1988 | 3,304 | #97 | 1.7 |
| 1987 | 3,534 | #86 | 1.9 |
| 1986 | 3,326 | #87 | 1.8 |
| 1985 | 3,779 | #83 | 2.0 |
| 1984 | 3,661 | #79 | 2.0 |
| 1983 | 3,656 | #78 | 2.0 |
| 1982 | 3,655 | #78 | 2.0 |
| 1981 | 3,850 | #78 | 2.1 |
| 1980 | 4,135 | #74 | 2.3 |
| 1979 | 3,729 | #80 | 2.2 |
| 1978 | 3,786 | #76 | 2.3 |
| 1977 | 3,481 | #80 | 2.1 |
| 1976 | 2,921 | #91 | 1.9 |
| 1975 | 2,815 | #90 | 1.8 |
| 1974 | 2,958 | #87 | 1.9 |
| 1973 | 3,054 | #87 | 2.0 |
| 1972 | 3,088 | #91 | 1.9 |
| 1971 | 3,582 | #84 | 2.0 |
| 1970 | 3,446 | #96 | 1.9 |
| 1969 | 2,936 | #107 | 1.6 |
| 1968 | 2,595 | #116 | 1.5 |
| 1967 | 2,504 | #120 | 1.4 |
| 1966 | 2,438 | #127 | 1.4 |
| 1965 | 2,422 | #129 | 1.3 |
| 1964 | 2,091 | #156 | 1.0 |
| 1963 | 1,948 | #164 | 1.0 |
| 1962 | 1,579 | #191 | 0.76 |
| 1961 | 1,499 | #198 | 0.71 |
| 1960 | 1,180 | #236 | 0.55 |
| 1959 | 1,179 | #231 | 0.55 |
| 1958 | 1,028 | #244 | 0.48 |
| 1957 | 945 | #249 | 0.44 |
| 1956 | 809 | #254 | 0.38 |
| 1955 | 655 | #278 | 0.32 |
| 1954 | 507 | #319 | 0.25 |
| 1953 | 359 | #359 | 0.18 |
| 1952 | 302 | #396 | 0.16 |
| 1951 | 218 | #458 | 0.12 |
| 1950 | 171 | #511 | 0.10 |
| 1949 | 83 | #755 | 0.05 |
| 1948 | 65 | #846 | 0.04 |
| 1947 | 46 | #1,065 | 0.03 |
| 1946 | 27 | #1,360 | 0.02 |
| 1945 | 21 | #1,455 | 0.02 |
| 1944 | 23 | #1,406 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 30 | #1,262 | 0.02 |
| 1942 | 14 | #1,971 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 16 | #1,778 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 8 | #2,714 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 16 | #1,760 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 6 | #3,252 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 6 | #3,239 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 7 | #3,046 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 5 | #3,770 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 7 | #3,151 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 5 | #3,904 | under 0.01 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,131 | under 0.01 |
| 1929 | 6 | #3,652 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 6 | #3,817 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 6 | #3,830 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,128 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Derrick a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Derrick has been given almost only to boys: 997 girls in 98 years of records.
Girls and boys named Derrick: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Derrick, and how old are they?
134,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 91% of the 146,344 Americans ever recorded as Derrick. The median Derrick alive today is 42 years old; half are between 32 and 53.
The 2020 Census counted 110,568 people named Derrick (225 women and girls, 110,343 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 134,866 born in the U.S. The Census count is 18% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 50 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 10,900 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 44,700 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 48,700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 21,500 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,600 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Derrick born?
The states with the most babies named Derrick are Texas, California and Illinois, with 21% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 10,900 | #900 | 0.9× |
| California | 10,384 | #1,046 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 9,050 | #821 | 1.3× |
| New York | 8,630 | #1,006 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 7,396 | #684 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 7,056 | #572 | 1.8× |
| Louisiana | 6,578 | #405 | 2.3× |
| Michigan | 6,466 | #1,021 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 5,926 | #683 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 5,844 | #655 | 1.5× |
Where Derrick is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Derrick is most over-represented in District of Columbia: since 1917 it was given 2.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Derrick with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 194,363 babies since 1880, Derrick is the most given (75% of them). In 2025 it was given to 288 of their 861 babies (33%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Derrick
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Derrick and names like it
- Compare Derrick and DerickBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sDerrick peaked in 1980.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Derrick since 1910.
- The top names of 1980The year the most babies were named Derrick.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Derrick alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with DMost given first.