Dietrich
A masculine name of German origin meaning "ruler of the people".
Name Census estimates that about 1,976 living Americans carry the first name Dietrich. It is a predominantly male name (93.2% of registrations). The average person named Dietrich today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dietrich births was 2016 (58 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dietrich. 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
2.0K
~ 1 in 173,459 Americans
Peak year
2016
58 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,335
Tracked since 1917
Census
Dietrich in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,911 people with the first name Dietrich, which placed it at #7,805 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
#7,805
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,911 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dietrich
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dietrich is White at 62.9%. The next largest groups are Black (26.1%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Dietrich 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 Dietrich at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.9% · 1,202
- Black or African American26.1% · 498
- Two or more races4.9% · 93
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 89
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Dietrich
Dietrich leans heavily male at 93.2% of total registrations, but 149 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Dietrich as a male name
- Ranked #3,335 in 2024
- 35 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (58 births)
Dietrich as a female name
- Ranked #10,163 in 1978
- 5 female births in 1978
- Peak: 1962 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dietrich leans strongly male. 1,753 people counted with this name were male (91.8%), compared with 157 female bearers (8.2%).
Popularity
Dietrich: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dietrich from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 400 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Dietrich remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dietrich 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 Dietrich during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dietrichs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Dietrich, while Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 21 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dietrich
The name Dietrich originated from the Germanic language branch and can be traced back to the 5th century AD. It is derived from the Old Germanic words "diet" meaning "people" and "rīc" meaning "ruler" or "powerful". The name essentially translates to "mighty among the people" or "powerful leader of the people".
During the Middle Ages, the name gained popularity across various Germanic tribes and regions, including modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Its earliest recorded spelling was "Theodoricus" in Latin texts, which later evolved into "Dietrich" in the German language.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Dietrich was Theodoric the Great, also known as Dietrich von Bern, a 5th-century king of the Ostrogoths who ruled the Italian Peninsula from 493 to 526 AD. He played a significant role in the transition from ancient Roman to medieval European culture.
Another prominent figure was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident born in 1906. He was actively involved in the German resistance movement against the Nazi regime and was eventually executed in 1945 for his involvement in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
In the realm of literature, Dietrich von der Glezze was a 13th-century German poet and author of the courtly romance "Liet von Troye", which retells the story of the Trojan War. He lived during the height of the Middle High German literature period.
Moving forward in history, Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) was a renowned German-Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 17th century and had a significant influence on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
More recently, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor who was widely regarded as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned for his interpretations of Lieder, the German art song tradition.
People
Dietrich + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dietrich 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
Dietrich: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dietrich?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,976 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dietrich 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 173,459 US residents.
Is Dietrich a common name?
We classify Dietrich as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,183 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dietrich most popular?
The single biggest year for Dietrich was 2016, when 58 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dietrich is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dietrich in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,911 people with the name Dietrich, or 0.63 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,805 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 Dietrich 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 Dietrich?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dietrich leans strongly male. 1,753 people counted with this name were male (91.8%), compared with 157 female bearers (8.2%). 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 Dietrich?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dietrich is White at 62.9%. The next largest groups are Black (26.1%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Dietrich most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dietrich in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.9% (1,202 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 Dietrich in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dietrich a male name?
Yes, 93.2% of people registered as Dietrich 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 Dietrich still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dietrich 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 Dietrich 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 common is the name Dietrich?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.