Drew
- Pronunciation
- [Drew]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Abbreviation Of Andrew. Modern Actress Drew Barrymore.
- Origin
- Scottish
About the Name Drew
Drew began life as a short form of Andrew, the classic name meaning "manly" or "strong" from the Greek andreios. Crisp and effortlessly cool, it has crossed over into wide use for girls, where its single-syllable punch and unisex polish give it a confident, modern edge. It is a name that says a great deal in a single, decisive beat. It is a name that proves brevity can carry real boldness and style.
That blend of strength and simplicity is exactly its appeal. As a girls' name, Drew feels fresh and a little daring — short, stylish, and entirely free of frills — fitting neatly into the contemporary taste for unisex names that pack real character into a single syllable. It carries an easy, self-assured charm, the kind of name that sounds equally at home in a boardroom, on a stage, or on a playground. It feels grounded and bold, a name that holds its own in any setting. Its rise among girls reflects a broader love of names that feel sharp, current, and a touch unexpected.
Drew first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for girls in 2000 and has been climbing in recent years, reaching its peak in 2024 at rank #695 — its strongest showing on record, with 404 girls given the name. With roughly 2,756 births across its tracked span, the trajectory points firmly upward, marking Drew as a rising star among modern unisex choices for girls.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Drew
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Drew by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2005 with 1,950 boys named Drew (boy rank #198 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #553 for boys (541 US births). That's 355 places below its 2005 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Drew Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Drew the strongest states are New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Hampshire | #208 | 18 |
| 2 | North Dakota | #219 | 30 |
| 3 | South Dakota | #224 | 18 |
| 4 | Hawaii | #259 | 15 |
| 5 | Louisiana | #285 | 180 |
| 6 | Connecticut | #319 | 64 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | #331 | 177 |
| 8 | Iowa | #339 | 98 |
| 9 | Minnesota | #341 | 168 |
| 10 | Utah | #344 | 134 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tennessee | #668 | 89 |
| 2 | Virginia | #663 | 81 |
| 3 | Florida | #652 | 216 |
| 4 | Arizona | #638 | 95 |
| 5 | Georgia | #632 | 143 |
| 6 | South Carolina | #603 | 48 |
| 7 | Alabama | #600 | 39 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #592 | 137 |
| 9 | Colorado | #589 | 54 |
| 10 | Texas | #569 | 467 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Drew in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Drew?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Drew to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Drew against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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