Dardanella vs Darius
American parents have registered 54,278 Dariuses since 1880, against 50 Dardanellas. Darius is still ahead, with 322 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Dardanella Darius
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 120 years in which either name was published, Darius for 119 years and Dardanella for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.
- 1880–1919 Darius ahead
- 1920 Dardanella ahead
- 1921–2025 Darius ahead
Side by side
| Dardanella | Darius | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 50 | 54,278 |
| Most in one year | 23 | 2,200 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 322 |
| Estimated living today | 0 | 52,000 |
| Median age today | 103 | 28 |
| Peak year | 1920 | 1994 |
| Best rank | 1,751st girls | 155th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 788th |
| First recorded | 1920 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 50 / 0 | 272 / 54,006 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Dardanellas alive today are over 103; half the Dariuses are over 28. That is 75 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Dardanella and Darius.