Humanverse

Darrell vs Darylene

American parents have registered 160,952 Darrells since 1880, against 49 Darylenes. Darrell is still ahead, with 97 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Darrell against Darylene, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Darrell Darylene

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

Darrell has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1886 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1932, when Darrell had 1,004 and Darylene had 8.

Side by side

  Darrell Darylene
Total US births 160,95249
Most in one year 4,7978
Babies in 2025 97under 5
Estimated living today 113,00030
Median age today 5979
Peak year 19581932
Best rank 90th boys3,274th girls
Rank in 2025 1,688thunranked
First recorded 18861932
Girls / boys 1,186 / 159,76649 / 0

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 Darylenes alive today are over 79; half the Darrells are over 59. That is 20 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: Darrell and Darylene.