Humanverse

Darlyn vs Daryl

American parents have registered 67,477 Daryls since 1880, against 2,097 Darlyns. Daryl is still ahead, with 113 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Darlyn 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 2019, when Darlyn had 50 and Daryl had 74.

Side by side

  Darlyn Daryl
Total US births 2,09767,477
Most in one year 611,968
Babies in 2025 32113
Estimated living today 1,80052,000
Median age today 2257
Peak year 20211956
Best rank 2,784th girls165th boys
Rank in 2025 4,352nd1,529th
First recorded 19261912
Girls / boys 2,064 / 334,419 / 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 Daryls alive today are over 57; half the Darlyns are over 22. That is 35 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

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: Darlyn and Daryl.