Darran
Masculine
Darran doubles a letter in a name that appeared in English almost from nowhere in the last century. It is also, spelled exactly this way, a feature of the Welsh landscape: several hills in south Wales carry it.
How old is the name Darran?
Darran first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Darran alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 700 people named Darran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darran most popular?
Darran peaked in 1965, reaching #1000 nationally. See the whole 1965 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Darran
In Welsh place names the element daren or darren marks a rocky spur, a crag or a steep outcrop on a hillside, and it turns up on Ordnance Survey maps across the south Wales valleys, usually attached to something else describing the hill. Welsh landscape vocabulary is unusually precise about this: there are separate words for a rounded hill, a ridge, a crag, a pass, a hollow and a slope, and they are used consistently enough that a reader who knows twenty of them can picture the ground from the name alone. English is vaguer, having flattened most of its landscape words into hill and valley. Whether any American Darran comes from a Welsh crag is not recorded and is probably not the case, but the word is there.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Darren's own origin has never been established, which is unusual for a name that became as common as it did. This spelling adds a doubled consonant and nothing else, and no reason for it is recorded.
Pronouncing Darran
DAR-un
Two syllables with the stress in front. duh-RAN, with the weight on the second, is also heard.
Nicknames for Darran
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
- 1958
- Most boys named
- 197036 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1000reached in 1965
- Change vs 2012
- −16.7%5 in 2021, 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.
Darrans among us
people named Darran 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
Darran 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 entirely familiar, so it is never a puzzle to say.
- Two syllables with a light ending are easy to hear and easy to write.
- It is rare on paper while sounding completely ordinary.
- Darren and Daren are both far commoner, so this spelling will be corrected regularly.
- Two stress patterns are in circulation and the spelling settles neither.
- No origin is documented for the name in any spelling, so the meaning question has nothing to answer with.
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Darran
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Darrans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Darran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darran in 2025?
- Darran is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Darran with classmates?
- Darran will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Darran? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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