Derek

See also: derék, derek, and Đerek

English

Alternative forms

• Derick
• Derrick
• Deryck

rare non-standard spellings (some based upon mispronunciations and mergers)

• Darek
• Darick
• Darrick
• Darriq
• Dereck
• Deric
• Derik
• Deriq
• Derreck
• Derrek
• Derrik
• Derryck
• Derryk
• Deryk
• Deryke

Etymology

Borrowed in the Middle Ages from a Middle Low German variant of Theodoric, and revived in the nineteenth century. Not related to Hebrew דֶּרֶךְ (déreḵ, “road”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛɹɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɛɹɪk

Proper noun

Derek

1. A male given name from the Germanic languages.
   • 1895, The American Magazine, Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, page 446:

     "Do you think so? Her husband has an odd name - Derek Keppel. He is a musician - a violinist."

   • 1974, Joseph Heller, Something happened, →ISBN, page 509:

     We do not entertain as much anymore because of Derek. (He produces strain. We have to pretend he doesn't.) I used to like him when I still thought he was normal. I was fond of him. I used to call him Dirk, and Kiddo, Steamshovel, Dinky Boy, and Dicky Dare. Till I found out what he was. Now it's always formal: Derek.

   • 2010, James Robertson, And the Land Lay Still, Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 292:

     Frederick or Derek Boothby was in his late fifties, the son of a naval officer and a daughter of the Earl of Limerick.

   • 2024 April 11, Fredreka Schouten and Tierney Sneed, “GOP leaders pursue new lawsuits over 2024 election rules – including attacking methods of voting they want supporters to use”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     The willingness to bring more marginal legal cases reflects how the amount of money being put toward election litigation has increased significantly, said Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame who noted that the trend also applies to Democrats and outside groups across the ideological spectrum.

2. A surname.

Usage notes

Popular in the UK in mid-twentieth century.

Derived terms

• Bo Derek

Related terms

• Dedrick
• Del
• Derk
• Derry
• Dirk
• Jerrick
• Terry

Translations

given name

• Catalan: Teodoric
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 德里克 (Délǐkè), 德瑞克 (Déruìkè)

• Czech: Dětřich (cs)
• Dutch: Diederik (nl), Diedrich, Dirk (nl)
• Esperanto: Teodoriko (eo)
• Estonian: Tiidrik, Tiit
• Faroese: Tíðrikur
• Finnish: Tiiri (very rare as a first name, more commonly a surname), Didrik (rare)
• French: Thierry (fr)
• Galician: Teoderico
• German: Dietrich (de), Dirk (de)
• Greek: Θεοδώριχος (el) m (Theodórichos), Ντέρεκ (el) (Ntérek) (transliteration from English)

  Ancient Greek: Θευδέριχος m (Theudérikhos)

• Hungarian: Detre (hu)
• Icelandic: Diðrik (is), Þiðrik (is)
• Italian: Teodorico (it)
• Japanese: デレク (dereku)
• Latin: Theodoricus
• Latvian: Didzis m
• Norwegian: Didrik
• Polish: Teodoryk (pl) m
• Portuguese: Teodorico (pt)
• Romanian: Teodoric
• Russian: Дерек (ru) (Derek)
• Scottish Gaelic: Ruairidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Теодорик

  Roman: Teodorik

• Slovene: Teodorik
• Spanish: Teodorico (es)
• Swedish: Didrik (sv)
• Walloon: Tiri (wa)

Further reading

• Behind the Name Article
• Think Baby Names Article