Darious
Masculine · “Old Persian Darayavaush”
Darius carved his account of how he took the throne into a cliff at Behistun, in three languages. Two thousand three hundred years later that inscription was how Old Persian cuneiform was deciphered. The name is on the object that made an entire writing system readable again.
How old is the name Darious?
Darious first appears in US birth records in 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Darious alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 1,500 people named Darious are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darious most popular?
Darious peaked in 1989, reaching #1243 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,667 places below that high. See the whole 1989 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Darayavaush to Darious
The story of Darious
The Behistun inscription is cut into a limestone cliff in western Iran, three hundred feet above the road, and records Darius the Great's version of his seizure of power in 522 BC. It is written three times: in Old Persian, in Elamite and in Akkadian. Henry Rawlinson copied the Old Persian sections in the 1830s at considerable physical risk, and the trilingual text did for cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone did for hieroglyphs, since the Old Persian was the simplest of the three and could be worked out first, then used as a key. Everything modern scholarship knows about Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian rests on that chain. The name Darius appears throughout the text, in a script that could not be read at all until his own monument explained itself.
Meaning
Old Persian Darayavaush, holding firm the good
Darious is a spelling of Darius, from Old Persian Darayavaush, generally read as holding firm the good or possessor of good, built on a verb meaning to hold. Greek rendered it Dareios and Latin Darius. Three kings of Persia bore it, and it appears in Ezra, Daniel and Nehemiah. The American peak of this spelling is 1989.
How the name formed
- Darayavaush
- Dareios
- Darius
- Darious
Related forms: Darius · Dariush · Dareios
Pronouncing Darious
duh-RY-us
Three syllables, stress on the second. Some Americans say DAR-ee-us with the stress at the front. Persian Dariush ends in a sh sound.
Nicknames for Darious
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
- 1952
- Most boys named
- 199376 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1243reached in 1989
- Change vs 2024
- +33.3%8 in 2025, from 6
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.
Darious in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Darius in English — spelling variant
- Dariush in Persian — same name
- Dareios in Greek — same name
Dariouss among us
people named Darious are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Darious
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 Sammuel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Darious's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sammuel climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sammuel's path sketches the road Darious is walking now.
Darious 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
Darious beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Darious in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has one of the best documented origins of any name.
- Three syllables with clear middle stress.
- Darius is available as the standard spelling.
- Darius is much commoner and reads as correct.
- American speakers stress it two different ways.
- The extra o adds a letter without adding a sound.
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What they receive
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Darious
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dariouss 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 Darious are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darious in 2025?
- Darious ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Darious?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Darious — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Darious with classmates?
- Darious will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Darious
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Ellery#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Darious? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Darious and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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