Dedra
A feminine name originating potentially from a French or Latin source meaning "gift" or "prosperous".
Name Census estimates that about 3,792 living Americans carry the first name Dedra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dedra today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dedra births was 1963 (190 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dedra. 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.
People living today
3.8K
~ 1 in 90,389 Americans
Peak year
1963
190 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2007 SSA rank
#11,882
Tracked since 1944
Census
Dedra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,604 people with the first name Dedra, which placed it at #4,167 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
#4,167
National first-name rank
People counted
4.6K
4,604 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dedra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dedra is White at 56.2%. The next largest groups are Black (36.1%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Dedra 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 Dedra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.2% · 2,586
- Black or African American36.1% · 1,660
- Two or more races3.3% · 153
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 128
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 64
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 13
Popularity
Dedra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dedra from the 1940s through to the 2000s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 1,641 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dedra 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 Dedra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dedras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Dedra, while New Jersey, West Virginia, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 98 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dedra
The given name Dedra has its origins in the Germanic languages, dating back to the medieval period. It is believed to be a variant of the name Theodora, which itself is derived from the Greek name Theodoros, meaning "gift of God." The root words "theo" and "dora" translate to "god" and "gift," respectively.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dedra can be found in the 13th century, when it was used as a feminine form of the male name Theodoric. This name was particularly popular among the Frankish nobility during the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties that ruled over parts of modern-day France and Germany.
In the 15th century, the name Dedra appeared in various historical records and genealogical documents across central Europe, indicating its continued usage among the noble classes and the emerging merchant class. Some notable bearers of the name from this era include Dedra von Auersperg (1412-1489), a Bavarian noblewoman, and Dedra Fugger (1437-1501), a member of the wealthy Fugger family of merchants and bankers from Augsburg, Germany.
As the Renaissance period unfolded, the name Dedra began to spread beyond the Germanic regions, with records showing its presence in parts of Italy, France, and the Low Countries. One notable figure from this time was Dedra Boccaccio (1496-1563), an Italian poet and scholar who was a distant relative of the renowned writer Giovanni Boccaccio.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the name Dedra gained popularity among the upper classes of various European countries, including England and Scotland. Notable bearers of the name from this period include Dedra Walpole (1662-1726), an English courtier and the wife of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Dedra Macpherson (1717-1796), a Scottish poet and essayist.
As the 19th century dawned, the name Dedra continued to be used across Europe, with bearers hailing from diverse backgrounds and professions. One notable figure was Dedra Curie (1867-1934), a Polish-born physicist and the daughter of Marie Curie, the pioneering scientist who won the Nobel Prize for her work on radioactivity.
People
Dedra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dedra 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
Dedra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dedra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,792 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dedra 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 90,389 US residents.
Is Dedra a common name?
We classify Dedra as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,418 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dedra most popular?
The single biggest year for Dedra was 1963, when 190 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dedra is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dedra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,604 people with the name Dedra, or 1.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,167 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 Dedra 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 Dedra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dedra appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,614 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Dedra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dedra is White at 56.2%. The next largest groups are Black (36.1%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Dedra most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dedra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.2% (2,586 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 Dedra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dedra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dedra in the SSA data are female. 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 Dedra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dedra 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 Dedra 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 Dedra as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.