Derek

Derek

See also: derék and derek

English

Alternative forms

• Derick
• Derrick
• Deryck

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

• Darek
• 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.[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛɹɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɛɹɪk

Proper noun

Derek

1. A male given name from the Germanic languages.
   • 1895, The American Magazine, Crowell-Collier Pub. co.,1895. 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.

2. A surname.

Usage notes

• Popular in the UK in mid-twentieth century.

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) 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) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: Теодорик Roman: Teodorik Slovene: Teodorik Spanish: Teodorico (es) Swedish: Didrik (sv) Walloon: Tiri (wa)

References

1. Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges: A Concise Dictionary of First Names.Oxford University Press 2001.

• Behind the Name Article
• Think Baby Names Article