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Dereck vs Benjamin

How Dereck and Benjamin compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Dereck

Male · German

Meaning: Gifted Ruler. From Theodoric.

Benjamin

Male · Hebrew

Meaning: Son Of The Right Hand. In The Bible The Patriarch Jacob's Twelfth And Most Beloved Son.

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Dereck (boys) vs Benjamin (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Dereck Benjamin
Peak year (most US births) 2024 — 412 boys 1989 — 15,733 boys
Peak rank #664 #29
Most recent rank (2025) #688 (396 births) #11 (9,762 births)
Total US births since 1880 1,099 746,455
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 1,099 119,890

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Benjamin reached 15,733 US births in 1989 — 15,321 more than Dereck's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Dereck — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 New Jersey #568 72
2 Maryland #622 66
3 New York #650 127
4 Massachusetts #661 26
5 Virginia #665 32

Benjamin — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Massachusetts #3 3,593
2 Pennsylvania #4 4,762
3 Illinois #5 4,723
4 Washington #5 2,797
5 Rhode Island #5 454

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →