Darline
Feminine · “little dear one”
Darling is an English word a thousand years old. Old English deorling is deor, dear, with a diminutive ending — a little dear one — and it has meant a beloved person continuously since before the Norman conquest. Darline replaces the g with an -ine ending and turns a word into a name.
How old is the name Darline?
Darline first appears in US birth records in 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Darline alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 2,900 people named Darline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darline most popular?
Darline peaked in 1933, reaching #624 nationally. See the whole 1933 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From deorling to Darline
The story of Darline
Word names of endearment are a small and specific group in American naming — Darling, Honey, Precious — and Darline sits at the edge of it, being the word with an ending that makes it look like a name rather than a term of address. The -ine and -ene endings were extremely productive in the first half of the last century and turned Charlene, Marlene, Earline and Darlene out of short bases in the same decades. Darline is the -ine variant, and it is the less common of the two spellings.
Meaning
little dear one
Old English deorling joins deor, dear or precious, with the diminutive -ling — the same -ling that ends duckling and yearling. It has meant a beloved person in English without interruption for over a thousand years, which very few words manage. The -ine ending in this name is a French-derived American suffix and adds nothing. Darlene, Darline and Darla all descend from the word rather than from any personal name.
How the name formed
- deorling
- darling
- Darline
Pronouncing Darline
dar-LEEN
dar-LEEN, two syllables, stress at the back, the ending fully sounded. Some say DAR-leen with the weight at the front, and both are heard. Darlene and Darline are said identically; the ending is entirely a matter of the page.
Nicknames for Darline
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
- 1902
- Most girls named
- 1933109 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #624reached in 1933
- Change vs 2018
- +20.0%6 in 2024, 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.
Darlines among us
people named Darline 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
Darline 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 word behind it is genuinely ancient and its meaning is warm and immediate.
- The -ine ending is written the way it is said, with nothing left to convention.
- Two syllables with the stress at the end, which balances a front-stressed surname.
- Darlene is the more common spelling and this will be rewritten as that.
- It is a term of endearment used as a name, which some people find charming and others find a great deal.
- The -ine ending places the name in the first half of the last century fairly precisely.
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Darline
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Darlines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Darline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darline in 2025?
- Darline is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Darline with classmates?
- Darline 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 Darline? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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