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Dardanella vs Daryl

American parents have registered 67,477 Daryls since 1880, against 50 Dardanellas. Daryl is still ahead, with 113 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dardanella against Daryl, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dardanella Daryl

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

Daryl has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1912 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1920, when Dardanella had 23 and Daryl had 56.

Side by side

  Dardanella Daryl
Total US births 5067,477
Most in one year 231,968
Babies in 2025 under 5113
Estimated living today 052,000
Median age today 10357
Peak year 19201956
Best rank 1,751st girls165th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,529th
First recorded 19201912
Girls / boys 50 / 04,419 / 63,058

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 Daryls are over 57. That is 46 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 Daryl.