Humanverse

Derk vs Derrick

American parents have registered 146,344 Derricks since 1880, against 506 Derks. Derrick is still ahead, with 288 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Derk against Derrick, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Derk Derrick

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

Derrick has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1917 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1950, when Derk had 7 and Derrick had 171.

Side by side

  Derk Derrick
Total US births 506146,344
Most in one year 274,171
Babies in 2025 under 5288
Estimated living today 430134,000
Median age today 5541
Peak year 19671980
Best rank 1,476th boys74th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked850th
First recorded 19501917
Girls / boys 0 / 506997 / 145,347

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 Derks alive today are over 55; half the Derricks are over 41. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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