As an English name, it has been used occasionally since the 12th century. It is the name of a central character in Shakespeare's play The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594).
It has only been commonly used as a given name since the 20th century, influenced by two plays featuring the character: William Butler Yeats' Deirdre (1907) and J. M. Synge's Deirdre of the Sorrows (1910).