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Dardanella vs Darren

American parents have registered 104,506 Darrens since 1880, against 50 Dardanellas. Darren is still ahead, with 187 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Dardanella 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 89 years in which either name was published, Darren for 85 years and Dardanella for 4 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Dardanella Darren
Total US births 50104,506
Most in one year 235,963
Babies in 2025 under 5187
Estimated living today 094,000
Median age today 10349
Peak year 19201965
Best rank 1,751st girls52nd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,132nd
First recorded 19201936
Girls / boys 50 / 0569 / 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 Dardanellas alive today are over 103; half the Darrens are over 49. That is 54 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 Darren.