Humanverse

Darrell vs Darren

American parents have registered 160,952 Darrells since 1880, against 104,506 Darrens. But in 2025 it was Darren that was commoner, 187 babies to 97.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Darrell against Darren, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Darrell Darren

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 136 years in which either name was published, Darrell for 78 years and Darren for 58 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Darrell Darren
Total US births 160,952104,506
Most in one year 4,7975,963
Babies in 2025 97187
Estimated living today 113,00094,000
Median age today 5949
Peak year 19581965
Best rank 90th boys52nd boys
Rank in 2025 1,688th1,132nd
First recorded 18861936
Girls / boys 1,186 / 159,766569 / 103,937

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 Darrells alive today are over 59; half the Darrens are over 49. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Darrell Darren
Ireland 15910,418
Scotland 1448,913
England and Wales 2693,069
France 1351,320
Northern Ireland 9459

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Darrell and Darren.