Darek
Masculine · “holding firm the good”
Darek is the Polish everyday form of Dariusz, which is Darius — an Old Persian throne name that reached Poland by way of Greek and Latin.
How old is the name Darek?
Darek first appears in US birth records in 1957 — 68 years ago. The typical Darek alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 1,500 people named Darek are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darek most popular?
Darek peaked in 1973, reaching #1123 nationally. Today it ranks #3949, 2,826 places below that high. See the whole 1973 chart.
Where it comes from
From Darayavaush to Darek
The story of Darek
Polish naming has a fixed set of household forms — Dariusz gives Darek, Kazimierz gives Kazik, Zbigniew gives Zbyszek — and these function as the real everyday names while the formal one appears on documents. Dariusz was very heavily used in Poland in the 1960s and 1970s. Darek reaches American records with Polish families and, separately, as a respelling of Derek.
Meaning
holding firm the good
From Old Persian Darayavaush, joining a verb meaning to hold to a word for good; Greek rendered it Dareios and Latin Darius, and Polish gives Dariusz with Darek as its universal short form.
How the name formed
- Darayavaush
- Darius
- Dariusz
- Darek
Related forms: Dariusz · Darius · Dariush
Pronouncing Darek
DAH-rek
Two syllables, first stressed; Polish always stresses the penultimate.
Nicknames for Darek
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
- 1957
- Most boys named
- 197353 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1123reached in 1973
- Change vs 2024
- −10.0%27 in 2025, from 30
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.
Darek in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dariusz in Polish — related form
- Darius in English — related form
- Dariush in Persian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, New York, California.
Dareks among us
people named Darek are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 63,262 born in 2025 was named Darek
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Darek
- #3949
- Darek on the 2025 chart
- #895
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Darek went to 27 boys in 2025, but Dareck is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 33, which makes it the 895th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,054 places above the chart.
- Darek27
- Dareck6
About 1 boy in 51,760 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 63,262 for Darek itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Darek's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jo climbed just as high around 1935, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jo's path sketches the road Darek is walking now.
Darek 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
Where Darek is headed
Darek looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 44% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Darek beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Darek in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning traceable to one of the great empires of antiquity.
- Five letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- Dariusz stands behind it as a fuller formal option.
- It reads as a nickname to Polish speakers, which may matter on a document.
- Americans will read it as a respelling of Derek.
- Darek, Derek and Derrick are all close in an English ear.
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Darek
Masculine · #3949 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dareks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Darek are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Darek?
- Darek is the most-used spelling in US records — 27 of the 33 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Dareck.
- How popular is the name Darek in 2025?
- Darek ranks #3949 among US boy names in 2025, with 27 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Darek?
- About 1 in every 63,262 US boys born in 2025 was named Darek — 27 in all.
- Will my child share the name Darek with classmates?
- Darek will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Darek
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Stewart#3949 · Tillman#3949 · Ashley#3949 · Alfonzo#3949 · Blane#3949 · Brayton#3949 · Omega#3949 · Rufus#3949
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Darek? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Darek and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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