Deirdre (given name)

Deirdre is a feminine given name of Celtic origin and of unknown meaning. Deirdre is the name of a tragic heroine of Irish mythology. More attention was drawn to the name during the early 20th Century in Ireland and throughout the Anglosphere after W. B. Yeats published his poem Deirdre in 1907 and playwright J.M. Synge published his play Deirdre of the Sorrows in 1910. There are a number of spelling variants and pronunciations of the name in use.

Usage

Deirdre was among the 100 most popular names in use for girls in Ireland between 1964 and 1997, and was a top 10 name for Irish girls between 1966 and 1979.
The name was among the 1,000 most popular names in use for girls in the United States between 1944 and 1990. It was at its most popular between 1960 and 1972, when it was among the top 500 names for American girls. It reached peak popularity in 1961, when it was the 333rd most popular name for girls.

People

Dede Alpert, American politician
Deirdre Bair, American literary scholar and biographer
Deirdre Barrett, American author and psychologist
Dede Barry, American cycle racer
Deirdre Sullivan Beeman, American artist
Deirdre Beddoe, British historian
Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, birth name of Pema Chödrön, American Tibetan Buddhist nun
Deirdre Bolger, Irish former politician
Deirdre Bolton, American journalist
Deirdre Borlase, British painter and printmaker
Deirdre Breakenridge, American author and businesswoman
Deirdre Brennan, Irish bilingual poet, playwright, and short story writer who writes both in the Irish language and in English
Deirdre Byrne, Irish middle- and long-distance runner
Deirdre Cartwright, British guitarist and composer
Deirdre Caruana, Maltese former sprinter and Olympian
Deirdre Cash, Australian novelist and torch singer, who wrote under the pseudonym Criena Rohan
Deirdre Clancy, British costume designer
Deirdre Clune, Irish politician
Deirdre Codd, Irish camogie player
Deirdre Connelly, Puerto Rican business executive, particularly with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline
Deirdre Costello, Irish former camogie player
Deirdre Costigan, British politician
Deirdre Crampton, Canadian sailor and Olympian
Deirdre Curtin, Irish legal scholar
Deirdre M. Daly, American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut from 2013 to 2017
Deirdre Davis, Scottish actress
Déirdre de Búrca, Irish politician
Deirdre Donnelly, Irish actress
Deirdre Duke, Irish women's field hockey player
Deirdre English, American former editor of Mother Jones and author
Deirdre FitzGerald, Australian lawyer
Deirdre Flint, American satirical folk-rock singer-songwriter
Deirdre Fraser, Australian former world champion lightweight rower
Deirdre Gallagher, Irish retired race walker and Olympian
Deirdre Gogarty, Irish boxing coach and retired boxer
Deirdre Gribbin, Northern Irish composer
Deirdre Griswold, American communist political activist
Deirdre Grusovin, Australian politician
Deirdre Hanford, American executive in the electronic design automation industry
Deirdre Hargey, Irish Sinn Féin politician, Minister for Communities within the Northern Ireland Executive, and former Lord Mayor of Belfast
Deirdre Hart, New Zealand geographer and academic
Deirdre Hart-Davis, English socialite, gallery owner and model
Deirdre Heddon, British academic
Deirdre Heenan, Irish academic
Deirdre Henty-Creer, Australian painter who spent most of her career in Great Britain
Deirdre Hine, Welsh doctor
Deirdre Hughes, Irish former camogie player
Deirdre Hutton, British public servant
Deirdre Hyde, British artist
Deirdre Imus, American artist, author, health advocate and radio personality
Dee D. Jackson, English singer and musician
Deirdre Jordan, Australian academic and educator
Deirdre Kelly, British TV personality and actress
Deirdre Kelly (academic), Irish clinician, academic, and author
Deirdre Kelly (campaigner), Irish environmental and community activist
Deirdre Kinahan, Irish playwright and theater producer
Deirdre Eberly Lashgari, American English literature educator, editor, and translator
Deirdre Le Faye, English writer and literary critic
Deirdre Lovejoy, American actress
Deirdre Macnab, American activist and sustainable agriculture rancher
Deirdre Madden, Irish novelist
Deirdre McCloskey, American economist and philosopher born Donald McCloskey
Deirdre McKay, Northern Irish composer
Deirdre Milne, New Zealand retired lawyer and feminist activist
Deirdre Mullins, 21st-century Irish actress, director, and activist
Deirdre Murphy (cyclist), American road cyclist
Deirdre Murphy (judge), Irish retired judge
Deirdre O'Brien born c. 1966), American businesswoman
Deirdre O'Connell, Irish-American actress, singer, and theater director based in Dublin
Deirdre O'Connell (actress), American actress
Deirdre O'Connor, Australian lawyer, academic, and former judge of the Federal Court
Deirdre O'Connor (architect), Irish architect
Deirdre O'Donoghue, American disc jockey
Deirdre O'Kane, Irish stand-up comedian and actress
Deirdre Osborne, Australian-born academic based in the United Kingdom
Deirdre Purcell, Irish author, actress, and journalist
Deirdre Quinn, American model and actress
Deirdre Quinn (entrepreneur), American businesswoman
Deirdre Shannon, stage name of Irish singer Deirdre Gilsenan
Deirdre Sheehan, Irish former swimmer and Olympian
Deirdre Shoemaker, American astrophysicist
Deirdre Smeltzer, American mathematician, mathematics educator, textbook author, and academic administrator
Deirdre Sullivan, 21st-century Irish children's writer and poet
Deirdre Sutton, Irish former camogie player
Deirdre Tarrant, New Zealand dancer, dance teacher and choreographer
Deirdre Walsh, American business executive and former government employee
Deirdre Wilson, British linguist and cognitive scientist
Deirdre Wolhuter, Canadian-born South African actress

Fictional characters

Deirdre Barlow, in the British soap opera Coronation Street
Deirdre Beaubeirdre, in Everything Everywhere All at Once
Deirdre Hortense (Dodie) Bishop, in the American animated TV series As Told by Ginger
Deirdre (Halloween), from the 1979 novelization Halloween by Curtis Richards