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Darlene vs Darrol

American parents have registered 205,546 Darlenes since 1880, against 654 Darrols. Darlene is still ahead, with 108 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Darlene against Darrol, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Darlene Darrol

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

Darlene has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1896 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1918, when Darlene had 181 and Darrol had 6.

Side by side

  Darlene Darrol
Total US births 205,546654
Most in one year 8,30725
Babies in 2025 108under 5
Estimated living today 143,000360
Median age today 6766
Peak year 19581947
Best rank 49th girls1,482nd boys
Rank in 2025 1,844thunranked
First recorded 18961918
Girls / boys 204,942 / 6040 / 654

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.

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Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Darlene and Darrol.