Darice
Feminine
Darice is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,333 girls against 13 boys since 1880.
Darice may be a feminine of a Persian king's name or may be built from two of the commonest pieces in American naming, and there is no way to choose. The king's name is worth knowing about either way: it is not a word but a phrase, and it means something like holding firm to what is good.
How old is the name Darice?
Darice first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Darice alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 1,200 people named Darice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darice most popular?
Darice peaked in 1955, reaching #1383 nationally. See the whole 1955 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From An Old Persian throne name that is a phrase to Darice
Our story of Darice
Persian throne names were programs rather than labels. The king took a name on accession that stated what his reign was to be, and this one — holding firm the good — is a claim about legitimacy made by a man who had seized power and needed one. The great inscription he had carved into a cliff face says as much at length and in three languages, which is why the language can be read at all: the trilingual text was the key that opened Old Persian and Elamite to scholars in the nineteenth century, in exactly the way another trilingual stone opened Egyptian. A usurper's justification turned out to be a dictionary.
Meaningnot established
Not established
If the source is the Persian name, the reading is a phrase about holding fast to the good, which is unusually explicit as royal names go. If the source is an American formation from a common front and a common ending, there is no reading at all. Both are plausible for a name first appearing in the middle of the twentieth century.
How the name formed
- An Old Persian throne name that is a phrase
- Borrowed into Greek and then into European use
- A common American front and ending at the same spelling
- Darice on the register for both sexes
Pronouncing Darice
duh-REESE
Two syllables with the stress at the back and a soft ending. Some families say it with a z at the end instead, and the spelling supports either.
Nicknames for Darice
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
- 195552 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1383reached in 1955
- Change vs 2022
- +580.0%34 in 2023, from 5
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.
Darice in other languages
Darices among us
people named Darice are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Darice sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The sound is clear and nobody will need it repeated.
- It works on the register for either child, which the record confirms.
- The stress at the back gives it a firm and definite shape.
- Two origins are possible and the spelling settles neither.
- Sherice, Charice and Denice are close enough to be confused with it.
- It is firmly of the middle of the twentieth century.
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Darice
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Darices are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Darice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darice in 2025?
- Darice is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Darice with classmates?
- Darice will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
Dorothy#421 · Donna#1962 · Deborah#862 · Debra#4460 · Diane#2607 · Doris#2895 · Denise#1673 · Danielle#549
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Darice? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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