Darius vs Darlena
American parents have registered 54,278 Dariuses since 1880, against 1,536 Darlenas. Darius is still ahead, with 322 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Darius Darlena
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 120 years in which either name was published, Darius for 118 years and Darlena for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.
Side by side
| Darius | Darlena | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 54,278 | 1,536 |
| Most in one year | 2,200 | 53 |
| Babies in 2025 | 322 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 52,000 | 1,300 |
| Median age today | 28 | 60 |
| Peak year | 1994 | 1964 |
| Best rank | 155th boys | 1,559th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 788th | unranked |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1920 |
| Girls / boys | 272 / 54,006 | 1,536 / 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 Darlenas alive today are over 60; half the Dariuses are over 28. That is 32 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Darius the District of Columbia (2.8×), Georgia (2.4×), Maryland (2.3×)
- Darlena West Virginia (29.0×), Indiana (8.3×), Ohio (3.4×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Darius and Darlena.