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Darrah vs Darrell

American parents have registered 160,952 Darrells since 1880, against 820 Darrahs. Darrell is still ahead, with 97 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Darrah against Darrell, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Darrah Darrell

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

Darrell has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1886 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2004, when Darrah had 42 and Darrell had 410.

Side by side

  Darrah Darrell
Total US births 820160,952
Most in one year 424,797
Babies in 2025 under 597
Estimated living today 790113,000
Median age today 3459
Peak year 20041958
Best rank 3,490th girls90th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,688th
First recorded 19421886
Girls / boys 820 / 01,186 / 159,766

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 Darrells alive today are over 59; half the Darrahs are over 34. That is 25 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Darrah Darrell
Scotland 3144

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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