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Dirk

#4,746 in 2025Boys' name

People + king, ruler, through Dietrich

Dirk has been given to 10,955 babies in the U.S. since 1918. In 2025 it ranked #4,746 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1954, with 438 recorded.

Babies named Dirk, 2025

1 in 158,000

Dirk over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Dirk: meaning, origin, and history

People + king, ruler, through Dietrich

Dutch, German and Low German

What Dirk means

Dirk belongs to the name family reached through Dirk → Dirk → Dietrich → Diotrīh. Its meaning is “people + king, ruler”.

Origin, language, and formation

Dirk is used in English, Dutch and German. Its origins include Dutch, German and Low German.

Dirk comes through German Dirk.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Derek, Diederik, Dietrich, Dirk and Diotrīh.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Dirk is pronounced /dɝk/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 10,955 boys were recorded with the name Dirk between 1918 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 438 in 1954; its best national rank was #340 in 1954.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #4,042 in 2020 to #4,746 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,103 in 2015 to #4,746 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Dirk?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 158,000
21 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 81,300
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,746
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
109,425 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Dirk sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 109,425 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Dirk. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Dirks were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Dirk was born before 1966 — so the typical Dirk is around 59 today.

Median birth year
1966
About 59 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
30.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
10,321
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 30.2% of all recorded uses (3,310).

Is Dirk rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+2,185
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−704
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−643
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.84×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
4.8%
Peak was 1954 (438)
Years since peak
71
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
24.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#340
1954

Spellings of Dirk

Dirk is not the most common spelling — Mark is, with 69.1% against Dirk's 0.56%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Dirk is used

Across 1910–2025, Dirk was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 7,692 boys, against 1 in 22,565 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

013 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 7,692
  2. 2Montana1 in 8,333
  3. 3Iowa1 in 9,091
  4. 4Idaho1 in 10,000
  5. 5Colorado1 in 12,500
  6. 6Illinois1 in 12,500
  7. 7Indiana1 in 12,500
  8. 8Michigan1 in 12,500

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Dirk has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Dirk around the world

Where Dirk ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2013
    #4,685
    in 2013
  • France
    1944–1986
    #2,818
    in 1986
  • Canada
    1992–2020
    #2,570
    in 2020
  • South Australia
    1952–2003
    #588
    in 2003

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Dirk

People whose public names include Dirk, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Dirk in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Dirk. Linked forms have their own page here.

DerkDickDerekDierkDerrickTheodoricDikDiederik

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Dirk by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,746
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 704
Best rank ever
#340
1954
Peak year
1954
438 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
10,955
Count in 2025
21

Names similar to Dirk

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KirkDironDirckDirlBirkDirrickDiran

Names with a curve like Dirk

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Dirk, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

StevieJeffryCurtRandellScotMichelBartKipDanialKrisMontyNicky

Sibling names for Dirk

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Dirk

Top names of 1954, Dirk's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1954Boys' names starting with DDutch Boy NamesRugged Boy NamesUncommon German Boy Names