Darnell
Masculine · “hidden place”
Darnell is given to both — 28,631 boys and 2,387 girls since 1880. See Darnell as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Darnel is a weed that grows in wheat and looks exactly like it until harvest. It is the plant in the parable about the enemy sowing tares among the good grain, it was a serious agricultural problem for two thousand years, and it is also, separately, a French place that gave England a surname.
How old is the name Darnell?
Darnell first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Darnell alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 25,500 people named Darnell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darnell most popular?
Darnell peaked in 1984, reaching #281 nationally. Today it ranks #2421, 2,140 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Darnell
The weed matters because it is genuinely hard to see. Darnel seeds are the size of wheat seeds, the plant looks like wheat until it ripens, and it carries a fungus that makes it poisonous — which is why the parable's advice is to leave it until harvest rather than pull it early and lose the crop. Medieval farmers knew all this. The surname came from a different direction entirely, out of Normandy, crossed to England and then America, and moved to the front of the name in the twentieth century, where it became far commoner than it had ever been as a family name.
Meaningscholars disagree
hidden place, or a weed among wheat
The surname is generally traced to a French place name about a hidden or concealed spot. The English word darnel names the weed and is a separate line, and the two have shared a spelling for centuries.
Pronouncing Darnell
dar-NEL
Two syllables with the weight at the back. Front-weighted DAR-nel is also heard, particularly where the name is used as a surname.
Nicknames for Darnell
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 1984741 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #281reached in 1984
- Change vs 2023
- −34.1%56 in 2025, from 85
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.
Darnell in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Michigan, Ohio, California.
Darnells among us
people named Darnell are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 30,501 born in 2025 was named Darnell
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 Rocco test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Darnell's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rocco climbed just as high around 1922, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rocco's path sketches the road Darnell is walking now.
Darnell 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 Darnell is headed
Darnell is easing off slowly — about 21% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Darnell beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Darnell in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both syllables are readable, so the name is said correctly at sight.
- It works as a surname and as a first name, which suits families that use both.
- It carries two short forms with quite different characters.
- It shares a spelling with a weed, though almost nobody now knows the word.
- Darnel and Darnell are both in the record and will be confused.
- It is strongly associated with the second half of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Darnell
Masculine · #2421 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Darnells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 25,500 people named Darnell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darnell in 2025?
- Darnell ranks #2421 among US boy names in 2025, with 56 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Darnell?
- About 1 in every 30,501 US boys born in 2025 was named Darnell — 56 in all.
- Will my child share the name Darnell with classmates?
- Darnell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Darnell
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Idrees#2421 · Rahmir#2421 · Jin#2421 · Fitzgerald#2421 · Woodson#2421 · Pranav#2421 · Domenico#2421 · Amelio#2421
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Darnell? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Darnell and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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