Dietrick
A masculine name derived from the German words "diet" meaning "people" and "reich" meaning "ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 178 living Americans carry the first name Dietrick. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dietrick today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dietrick births was 1977 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dietrick. 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
178
~ 1 in 1,925,586 Americans
Peak year
1977
13 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2002 SSA rank
#7,843
Tracked since 1966
Census
Dietrick in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 211 people with the first name Dietrick, which placed it at #37,164 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
#37,164
National first-name rank
People counted
211
211 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
72.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dietrick
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dietrick is Black at 72.0%. The next largest groups are White (21.3%) 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 Dietrick 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 Dietrick at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American72.0% · 152
- White21.3% · 45
- Two or more races3.3% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Dietrick: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dietrick from the 1960s through to the 2000s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 79 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
Dietrick 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 Dietrick 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 Dietrick
The name Dietrick has its origins in the Germanic languages, deriving from the Old High German words "diet" (meaning people) and "ric" (meaning ruler or powerful). It is a variation of the name Theodoric, which was popular among the Germanic tribes during the Migration Period in Europe, spanning the 4th to 8th centuries AD.
One of the earliest and most notable historical figures bearing this name was Theodoric the Great, who ruled the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy from 493 to 526 AD. He was a prominent military leader and played a significant role in the transition from the Western Roman Empire to the medieval period.
In the Middle Ages, the name Dietrick gained popularity across various regions of Europe, particularly in Germany and the Low Countries. It was often associated with nobility and strength, reflecting its etymological roots.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dietrick can be found in the Nibelungenlied, a renowned German heroic epic from around the 13th century. The epic features a character named Dietrich von Bern, who is based on the historical figure Theodoric the Great.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Dietrick, including Dietrick Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident; Dietrick Prinz (1903-1995), a German-American artist and illustrator; and Dietrick Sieling (born 1952), a German politician who served as the Mayor of Bremen from 2015 to 2019.
Other famous Dietricks include Dietrick Lamade (1508-1554), a German Renaissance painter and engraver, and Dietrick Buxtehude (1637-1707), a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period, widely considered one of the most important composers of the 17th century.
People
Dietrick + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dietrick 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
Dietrick: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dietrick?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 178 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dietrick 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 1,925,586 US residents.
Is Dietrick a common name?
We classify Dietrick as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 189 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dietrick most popular?
The single biggest year for Dietrick was 1977, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dietrick is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dietrick in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 211 people with the name Dietrick, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,164 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 Dietrick 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 Dietrick?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dietrick leans strongly male. 204 people counted with this name were male (96.7%), compared with 7 female bearers (3.3%). 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 Dietrick?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dietrick is Black at 72.0%. The next largest groups are White (21.3%) 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 Dietrick most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Dietrick in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.0% (152 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 Dietrick in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dietrick a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dietrick 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 Dietrick still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dietrick 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 Dietrick 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 Dietrick?
See how many Americans are named Dietrick on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.