Derek

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

title: "Derek" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["english-masculine-given-names", "masculine-given-names"] topic_path: "general/english-masculine-given-names" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox Given Name Revised"]

FieldValue
nameDerek
pronunciation
genderMale
meaningsee Theodoric
originshort form of Diederik
related namesDiederik, Dierk, Dieter, Dietrich, Dirk, Terry, Theodoric, Thierry, Tudor, Tudur
::

| name = Derek | image= | imagesize= | caption= | pronunciation= | gender = Male | meaning = see Theodoric | region = | origin = short form of Diederik | related names = Diederik, Dierk, Dieter, Dietrich, Dirk, Terry, Theodoric, Thierry, Tudor, Tudur | footnotes =

Derek is a masculine given name. It is the English language short form of Diederik, the Low Franconian form of the name Theodoric. Theodoric is an old Germanic name with an original meaning of "people-ruler" or "lead the people".

Common variants of the name are Derrek, Derik, Deryck (included here), as well as Derrick and Derick.

History

The English form of the name arises in the 15th century, via import from the Low Countries. The native English (Anglo-Saxon) form of the name was Deoric or Deodric, from Old English Þēodrīc, but this name had fallen out of use in the medieval period. During the Late Middle Ages, there was intense contact between the territories adjacent to the North Sea, in particular due to the activities of the Hanseatic League. As a result, there was a lot of cross-pollination between Low German, Dutch, English, Danish and Norwegian. The given name Derk is found in records of the Low Countries from the early 14th century, and in the spelling Derck becomes rather common in name lists compiled in the Habsburg Netherlands during the early 16th century. An early bearer of the name Derek was lord of Keppel, Gelderland, in the early 14th century. A Derek van Keppel, lord of Verwoelde, died in 1495 and was succeeded by his eldest son, also called Derek van Keppel. A later Derek van Keppel died in 1646, succeeded by Asewolt van Keppel, the father of Arnold van Keppel, who in 1688 was made Earl of Albemarle in the Peerage of England.

Given name "Derek"

Arts and entertainment

A–M

N–Z

Sports

A–M

N–Z

Business

Politics

Science, education and academics

Writing

Miscellaneous

  • Derek Bentley (1933–1953), Englishman hanged for murder and subsequently pardoned
  • Derek Chauvin (born 1976), American former police officer convicted in the murder of George Floyd
  • Derek Anthony Seagrim (1903–1943), English soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross
  • Derek Watson (priest) (born 1938), British retired churchman, former Dean of Salisbury in the Church of England
  • Derek Wood (c. 1964 – 1988), one of two British soldiers killed in the 1988 Corporals killings incident
  • Derek (horse) (born 1978), a Brazilian thoroughbred racehorse

Fictional characters

Spelling variants

Derik

Derrek

Derrek

Deryck

Deryck

Popularity

Since 1940, the peak of the popularity of the name Derek in the United States was in the 1980s.

::data[format=table title="Popularity ranks of "Derek" in the USA since 1943
''Columns are years within decade.''"]

01234567892010s2000s1990s1980s1970s1960s1950s1940s
170181182
121132139149156172159142159168
545962677783101106110114
50535051525657545354
77636769748384827572
247205187177172166141123122109
470407363378362331300283256254
714953^956891862641
::

Rank 1 is the most popular, rank 2 is the next most popular, and so forth.

^ Rank 1000

Source: Social Security Administration.

| group 1 = 0.000:0.000:0.000:1.401:1.049:1.000:1.046:1.122:1.160:1.560: 2.128:2.457:2.755:2.646:2.762:3.021:3.333:3.534:3.906:3.937: 4.049:4.878:5.348:5.650:5.814:6.024:7.092:8.130:8.197:9.174: 12.987:15.873:14.925:14.493:13.514:12.048:11.905:12.195:13.333:13.889: 20.000:18.868:20.000:19.608:19.231:17.857:17.544:18.519:18.868:18.519: 18.519:16.949:16.129:14.925:12.987:12.048:9.901:9.434:9.091:8.772: 8.264:7.576:7.194:6.711:6.410:5.814:6.289:7.042:6.289:5.952: 5.882:5.525:5.495:0.000:0.000:0.000:0.000:0.000:0.000:0.000 | units suffix = ^-1* 1000 | group names = Rank | x legends = 1940:::::::::: 1950:::::::::: 1960:::::::::: 1970:::::::::: 1980:::::::::: 1990:::::::::: 2000:::::::::: 2010:::::::::

References

References

  1. see Gerhard Dumbar, ''Het kerkelyk en wereltlyk Deventer'' (1752) for an edition of name lists of [[Deventer]]. See also Ubbo Emmius, ''De agro Frisiae inter Amasum et Lavicom Syntagma'' (1646) for an edition of late medieval name lists from [[Frisia]].
  2. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4jAUAAAAQAAJ&dq=Derek&pg=PA147 Arthur Collins, ''The peerage of England'' (1779)]
  3. "Popular Baby Names". [[Social Security Administration]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

english-masculine-given-namesmasculine-given-names