Dierdre
Feminine Irish variant of the French name Derídre, meaning "wanderer".
Name Census estimates that about 915 living Americans carry the first name Dierdre. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dierdre today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dierdre births was 1961 (62 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dierdre. 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
915
~ 1 in 374,595 Americans
Peak year
1961
62 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2009 SSA rank
#15,773
Tracked since 1941
Census
Dierdre in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 943 people with the first name Dierdre, which placed it at #12,972 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
#12,972
National first-name rank
People counted
943
943 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dierdre
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dierdre is White at 60.8%. The next largest groups are Black (31.7%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Dierdre 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 Dierdre at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.8% · 573
- Black or African American31.7% · 299
- Two or more races3.6% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Popularity
Dierdre: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dierdre 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 436 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
Dierdre 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 Dierdre during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dierdres live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. New York, California, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Dierdre, while Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dierdre
The name Dierdre has its origins in Irish Gaelic, originating sometime around the 8th century AD. It is derived from the Old Irish words "der" meaning tears or sorrow, and "dree" meaning wanderer or pilgrim. The name is thought to mean "wanderer from sorrow" or "she who sorrows as she wanders."
Dierdre is first found in Irish mythology, specifically in the epic tale of the Tragic Romance of Dierdre and the Sons of Uisneach. This tragic love story from the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology features Dierdre as the central character. She was said to be of extraordinary beauty and destined to bring great sorrow upon the kingdom.
One of the earliest documented examples of the name comes from the 9th century, when a Dierdre ingen Chormaic is mentioned in the Annals of Ulster. This Dierdre was recorded as the wife of Muiredach mac Ruadrach, a king of Leinster.
In the 12th century, Dierdre ingen Domnaill was a renowned Irish poet and historian. She was a member of the learned class known as the filid and wrote extensively on Irish history and culture.
Another notable Dierdre from history is Dierdre nic an Bháird, a 16th century Irish noblewoman and patron of the arts. She was renowned for her support of Gaelic poets and scribes during a time when Irish culture was under threat.
The name also appears in various forms in Scottish Gaelic, such as Deirdre or Deidre. One famous Scottish bearer of the name was Deirdre Ni Chuilleanain, a 20th century poet and academic born in 1942. She was a highly respected figure in Irish literature and won numerous awards for her work.
Another notable Dierdre was Dierdre Hines du Pree, an American artist and painter born in 1942. She was known for her vibrant and colorful abstract expressionist works, and her art is held in various museum collections across the United States.
People
Dierdre + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dierdre 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
Dierdre: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dierdre?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 915 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dierdre 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 374,595 US residents.
Is Dierdre a common name?
We classify Dierdre as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,115 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dierdre most popular?
The single biggest year for Dierdre was 1961, when 62 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dierdre is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dierdre in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 943 people with the name Dierdre, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,972 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 Dierdre 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 Dierdre?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dierdre appears almost entirely female. Of the 944 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 Dierdre?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dierdre is White at 60.8%. The next largest groups are Black (31.7%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Dierdre most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dierdre in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.8% (573 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 Dierdre in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dierdre a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dierdre 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 Dierdre still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dierdre 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 Dierdre 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 the name Dierdre?
See how many Americans are named Dierdre on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.