Meaning and history
Deirdre comes from the Old Irish name Derdriu, whose meaning is uncertain, though it may be related to der, meaning “daughter.” The name belongs to a tragic figure in Irish legend who died of a broken heart after Conchobar, king of Ulster, forced her to marry him and killed her lover Naoise. It has been used commonly as a given name only since the 20th century, influenced by William Butler Yeats’ Deirdre (1907) and J. M. Synge’s Deirdre of the Sorrows (1910).
20062006: 42 births, rank #3,669
2007: 44 births, rank #3,653
2008: 29 births, rank #5,013
2009: 37 births, rank #4,107
2010: 27 births, rank #5,108
20112011: 22 births, rank #5,935
2012: 20 births, rank #6,341
2013: 21 births, rank #6,017
2014: 24 births, rank #5,456
2015: 27 births, rank #4,981
20162016: 20 births, rank #6,186
2017: 13 births, rank #8,299
2018: 15 births, rank #7,409
2019: 17 births, rank #6,698
2020: 16 births, rank #6,923
20212021: 17 births, rank #6,691
2022: 11 births, rank #9,056
2023: 18 births, rank #6,409
2024: 10 births, rank #9,556
20252025: 13 births, rank #7,885
Deirdre moved from #987 to #990 for girls between 1989 and 1990. Its highest annual birth count came in 1961, with 799 births.