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Darriel vs Darryl

American parents have registered 93,419 Darryls since 1880, against 754 Darriels. Darryl is still ahead, with 69 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Darriel Darryl

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

Darryl has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1913 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1931, when Darriel had 7 and Darryl had 18.

Side by side

  Darriel Darryl
Total US births 75493,419
Most in one year 225,178
Babies in 2025 under 569
Estimated living today 64075,000
Median age today 4159
Peak year 19591961
Best rank 1,865th boys80th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked2,108th
First recorded 19311913
Girls / boys 154 / 6001,134 / 92,285

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 Darryls alive today are over 59; half the Darriels are over 41. That is 18 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: Darriel and Darryl.