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Dereck vs Derik

American parents have registered 8,296 Derecks since 1880, against 5,508 Deriks. Dereck is still ahead, with 396 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dereck against Derik, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dereck Derik

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 77 years in which either name was published, Dereck for 56 years and Derik for 21 years. The lead changed hands 14 times.

7 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Dereck Derik
Total US births 8,2965,508
Most in one year 413198
Babies in 2025 39627
Estimated living today 7,9005,200
Median age today 2436
Peak year 20241987
Best rank 663rd boys654th boys
Rank in 2025 688th3,949th
First recorded 19491952
Girls / boys 0 / 8,2960 / 5,508

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Deriks alive today are over 36; half the Derecks are over 24. That is 12 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Dereck and Derik.