Darcey
Feminine · “Norman French d'Arcy”
Darcey is given to both — 2,070 girls and 93 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Pride and Prejudice made Darcy a name. Before 1813 it was a Norman surname, from d'Arcy, of Arcy in France, and nobody was called it. Two centuries later it is a girls' name, and the -ey spelling is the device that moved it there, since -ey reads female where a bare -y reads either.
How old is the name Darcey?
Darcey first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Darcey alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 1,900 people named Darcey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darcey most popular?
Darcey peaked in 1970, reaching #1354 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 7,506 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From d'Arcy to Darcey
The story of Darcey
The novel's effect is delayed and indirect, as literary effects usually are. Austen published in 1813 and the name did not move for over a century; what moved it was the twentieth-century adaptation industry, and specifically television. Darcy enters the American girls' data in the 1950s and rises through the 1960s and 70s, which places it alongside the general fashion for surnames rather than with any particular production. What the novel supplied was not a spike but a permanent association: the name carries a specific character, and that character's qualities, reserve, wealth and eventual decency, are what people mean when they say the name is romantic. Very few surnames have that. The -ey spelling is a separate and later development, and it is the standard American way of marking a surname name as belonging to a girl.
Meaning
Norman French d'Arcy, from Arcy
From the Norman French d'Arcy, of Arcy, referring to any of several places of that name in northern France. The preposition de has fused onto the front of the word, as it has in Danvers and Disney. Darcey is a modern spelling with an -ey ending, used to mark the name as female. It peaks in the American data in 1970.
How the name formed
- d'Arcy
- Darcy
- Darcey
Related forms: Darcy · O Dorchaidhe
Pronouncing Darcey
DAR-see
Two syllables, stress on the first. Darcy and Darcey are homophones and the ending is the only signal of sex in writing. The Irish surname O Dorchaidhe, from dorcha, dark, is a separate source anglicized the same way.
Nicknames for Darcey
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1947
- Most girls named
- 196867 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1354reached in 1970
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%11 in 2025, from 11
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Darcey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Darcy in English — spelling variant
- O Dorchaidhe in Irish — related form
Darceys among us
people named Darcey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Darcey
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Karole test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Darcey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Karole climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Karole's path sketches the road Darcey is walking now.
Darcey sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Darcey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Darcey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Norman etymology is documented back to specific places.
- It is short and easy to say.
- The literary association is a strong and positive one.
- Darcy is the more common spelling for both sexes.
- The name is inseparable from one novel.
- An unrelated Irish surname is anglicized identically.
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What they receive
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Darcey
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Darceys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Darcey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darcey in 2025?
- Darcey ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Darcey?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Darcey — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Darcey with classmates?
- Darcey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Darcey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Darcey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Darcey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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