Dereke
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "ruler of the people".
Name Census estimates that about 189 living Americans carry the first name Dereke. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dereke today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dereke births was 1972 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dereke. 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
189
~ 1 in 1,813,515 Americans
Peak year
1972
14 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2000 SSA rank
#10,798
Tracked since 1955
Census
Dereke in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 196 people with the first name Dereke, which placed it at #38,869 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
#38,869
National first-name rank
People counted
196
196 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
70.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dereke
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dereke is Black at 70.4%. The next largest groups are White (21.4%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Dereke 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 Dereke at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American70.4% · 138
- White21.4% · 42
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 8
- Two or more races3.1% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 2
Popularity
Dereke: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dereke from the 1950s through to the 2000s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 68 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dereke 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 Dereke 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 Dereke
The name Dereke has its origins in the Old English language, emerging during the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, which lasted from the 5th to the 11th century. It is derived from the Old English words "deor," meaning "beloved" or "precious," and "ric," meaning "ruler" or "powerful." Together, these elements form the composite name Dereke, suggesting a meaning along the lines of "precious ruler" or "beloved leader."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dereke can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This ancient record mentions a landowner named Dereke le Baillif, indicating the name's usage in Norman England.
In the 12th century, a notable figure bearing the name Dereke was Dereke de Ivri, a Norman nobleman and vassal of King Henry II of England. Dereke de Ivri held significant land holdings in Hampshire and played a role in the governance of the region during the latter half of the 12th century.
The name Dereke also appears in the historical records of Scotland, where it was borne by Dereke de Strathechin, a prominent landowner and nobleman who lived in the 13th century. Dereke de Strathechin was a vassal of the Scottish king and held lands in the region of Angus.
In the realm of literature, the name Dereke is mentioned in the 14th-century Middle English poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." In this famous Arthurian romance, Dereke is portrayed as a courtly knight in the service of King Arthur.
Another notable bearer of the name was Dereke Chaucer, the son of the renowned English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Dereke Chaucer lived in the late 14th and early 15th centuries and served as a member of the English Parliament and a diplomat for the Crown.
While the name Dereke has its roots in Old English and was prevalent in medieval Britain, it fell out of widespread use in later centuries. However, variations and derivatives of the name, such as Derek and Derrick, have continued to be used, carrying on the legacy of this ancient moniker.
People
Dereke + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dereke 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
Dereke: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dereke?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 189 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dereke 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 1,813,515 US residents.
Is Dereke a common name?
We classify Dereke as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 207 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dereke most popular?
The single biggest year for Dereke was 1972, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dereke is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dereke in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 196 people with the name Dereke, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,869 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 Dereke 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 Dereke?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dereke appears almost entirely male. Of the 187 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Dereke?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dereke is Black at 70.4%. The next largest groups are White (21.4%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Dereke most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Dereke in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.4% (138 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 Dereke in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dereke a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dereke 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.
Is Dereke still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dereke 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 Dereke 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 are called Dereke?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.