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Darden vs Darius

American parents have registered 54,278 Dariuses since 1880, against 68 Dardens. Darius is still ahead, with 322 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Darden against Darius, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Darden 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

Darius has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1933, when Darden had 6 and Darius had 15.

Side by side

  Darden Darius
Total US births 6854,278
Most in one year 72,200
Babies in 2025 under 5322
Estimated living today 1652,000
Median age today 7528
Peak year 19241994
Best rank 3,505th boys155th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked788th
First recorded 19241880
Girls / boys 0 / 68272 / 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 Dardens alive today are over 75; half the Dariuses are over 28. That is 47 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: Darden and Darius.