Drake
Drake was given to 299 boys in 2025, #827 among boys’ names; 36,875 Americans have been recorded with it since 1918 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 35,800 Americans named Drake and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 14 and 27.
Drake dropped 168 places in 2025, the #16 drop among the boys’ top 1,000 of 2024.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Drake by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Drake mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Drake is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the senses “male duck” (meaning) and “dragon.” (and).
As an English surname, from both senses of the noun drake meaning “male duck” and “dragon.”
As a German surname, from Low German drake (“dragon”), related to the above.
As a Dutch surname, Americanized/West Flemish variant of Draak, also related to the above.
/dɹeɪk/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Drake?
#827 among boys’ names, 2025
Drake fell from #397 in 2015 to #827 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.41 to 0.18 per 1,000.
1,885 babies in 2010, the peak
Drake peaked in 2010, when 1,885 babies were given it (1,877 boys, #196 among boys’ names). The 299 births of 2025 are 16% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 299 | #827 | 0.18 |
| 2024 | 416 | #659 | 0.24 |
| 2023 | 398 | #681 | 0.23 |
| 2022 | 442 | #630 | 0.25 |
| 2021 | 496 | #568 | 0.28 |
| 2020 | 527 | #535 | 0.31 |
| 2019 | 488 | #571 | 0.27 |
| 2018 | 687 | #440 | 0.38 |
| 2017 | 649 | #468 | 0.35 |
| 2016 | 696 | #444 | 0.37 |
Every recorded year (90)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 782 | #397 | 0.41 |
| 2014 | 943 | #349 | 0.49 |
| 2013 | 1,217 | #284 | 0.64 |
| 2012 | 1,547 | #230 | 0.82 |
| 2011 | 1,607 | #222 | 0.85 |
| 2010 | 1,877 | #196 | 1.0 |
| 2009 | 1,587 | #230 | 0.80 |
| 2008 | 1,590 | #232 | 0.78 |
| 2007 | 1,524 | #239 | 0.73 |
| 2006 | 1,410 | #242 | 0.69 |
| 2005 | 1,338 | #247 | 0.67 |
| 2004 | 1,268 | #262 | 0.64 |
| 2003 | 1,130 | #273 | 0.57 |
| 2002 | 1,169 | #267 | 0.60 |
| 2001 | 1,245 | #263 | 0.64 |
| 2000 | 1,270 | #261 | 0.65 |
| 1999 | 1,049 | #282 | 0.55 |
| 1998 | 1,057 | #270 | 0.55 |
| 1997 | 974 | #286 | 0.52 |
| 1996 | 867 | #307 | 0.46 |
| 1995 | 795 | #326 | 0.42 |
| 1994 | 725 | #340 | 0.38 |
| 1993 | 682 | #349 | 0.35 |
| 1992 | 526 | #425 | 0.26 |
| 1991 | 424 | #480 | 0.21 |
| 1990 | 341 | #538 | 0.17 |
| 1989 | 272 | #591 | 0.14 |
| 1988 | 228 | #626 | 0.12 |
| 1987 | 138 | #785 | 0.07 |
| 1986 | 122 | #823 | 0.07 |
| 1985 | 103 | #892 | 0.06 |
| 1984 | 66 | #1,116 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 82 | #972 | 0.05 |
| 1982 | 54 | #1,264 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 66 | #1,126 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 47 | #1,382 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 42 | #1,443 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 25 | #1,982 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 30 | #1,754 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 27 | #1,842 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 17 | #2,468 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 43 | #1,297 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 38 | #1,360 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 43 | #1,265 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 41 | #1,313 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 60 | #1,057 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 54 | #1,052 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 54 | #1,007 | 0.03 |
| 1967 | 49 | #1,047 | 0.03 |
| 1966 | 54 | #996 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 70 | #876 | 0.04 |
| 1964 | 61 | #976 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 49 | #1,094 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 66 | #930 | 0.03 |
| 1961 | 76 | #876 | 0.04 |
| 1960 | 54 | #1,048 | 0.03 |
| 1959 | 48 | #1,121 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 50 | #1,081 | 0.02 |
| 1957 | 41 | #1,222 | 0.02 |
| 1956 | 43 | #1,157 | 0.02 |
| 1955 | 38 | #1,224 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 35 | #1,276 | 0.02 |
| 1953 | 30 | #1,384 | 0.02 |
| 1952 | 41 | #1,157 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 35 | #1,246 | 0.02 |
| 1950 | 38 | #1,170 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 32 | #1,281 | 0.02 |
| 1948 | 41 | #1,110 | 0.02 |
| 1947 | 31 | #1,322 | 0.02 |
| 1946 | 28 | #1,334 | 0.02 |
| 1945 | 11 | #2,159 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 13 | #2,014 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 15 | #1,935 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 12 | #2,180 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 9 | #2,530 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 7 | #2,956 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,143 | under 0.01 |
| 1929 | 5 | #4,119 | under 0.01 |
| 1920 | 6 | #3,940 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,338 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Drake a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Drake has been given almost only to boys: 83 girls in 90 years of records.
Girls and boys named Drake: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Drake, and how old are they?
35,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 36,875 Americans ever recorded as Drake. The median Drake alive today is 20 years old; half are between 14 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 31,584 people named Drake (166 women and girls, 31,418 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 33,685 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 24 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 571 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 607 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5,290 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 21,400 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,980 |
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 Drake born?
The states with the most babies named Drake are Texas, Iowa and Florida, with 22% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Iowa is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 23 | #1,021 | 0.8× |
| Iowa | 18 | #225 | 3.0× |
| Florida | 17 | #856 | 0.6× |
| Louisiana | 16 | #319 | 2.3× |
| Georgia | 16 | #634 | 0.7× |
| California | 13 | #1,377 | 0.7× |
| Oklahoma | 13 | #357 | 1.7× |
| Indiana | 11 | #593 | 1.6× |
| Arkansas | 11 | #312 | 2.3× |
| Alabama | 10 | #491 | 1.0× |
Where Drake is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Drake is most over-represented in Iowa: since 1918 it was given 3.0 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 Drake 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 39,415 babies since 1880, Drake is the most given (94% of them). In 2025 it was given to 299 of their 509 babies (59%), again the most given.
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 Drake
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 Drake and names like it
- Compare Drake and DracoBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sDrake peaked in 2010.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Drake since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Drake: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Drake.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Drake alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with DMost given first.