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Darrayl vs Darren

American parents have registered 104,506 Darrens since 1880, against 8 Darrayls. Darren is still ahead, with 187 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Darrayl against Darren, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Darrayl Darren

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

Darren has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1936 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1963, when Darrayl had 8 and Darren had 2,088.

Side by side

  Darrayl Darren
Total US births 8104,506
Most in one year 85,963
Babies in 2025 under 5187
Estimated living today 694,000
Median age today 6249
Peak year 19631965
Best rank 3,044th boys52nd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,132nd
First recorded 19631936
Girls / boys 0 / 8569 / 103,937

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 Darrayls alive today are over 62; half the Darrens are over 49. That is 13 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: Darrayl and Darren.