Darrell
Feminine · “From Airelle”
Darrell is given to boys far more often — 159,766 boys against 1,186 girls since 1880. See Darrell as a boy name
Darrell has two doubled consonants and only one of them is doing anything. The rr keeps the first vowel short, which is a real job; the ll at the end guards nothing, because the vowel before it is already reduced to nothing and cannot be made shorter.
How old is the name Darrell?
Darrell first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Darrell alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 900 people named Darrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darrell most popular?
Darrell peaked in 1948, reaching #1820 nationally. See the whole 1948 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From d'Airelle to Darrell
The story of Darrell
One Darrell left England a ghost story that has outlasted his family. Wild Will Darrell of Littlecote in Wiltshire was the subject of a persistent local account, recorded within living memory of the events, in which a midwife was fetched blindfolded to a great house at night, delivered a child, and watched a man throw it on the fire; she cut a piece from the bed hangings and counted the stairs on the way out, and identified the house afterwards. There was a trial. Darrell was acquitted, under circumstances that were talked about, and died a few years later when his horse threw him at a spot still called Darrell's Stile. The house is real, the court records exist, and the story has been told for four hundred years.
Meaning
From Airelle
A Norman surname taken from a place in Calvados, with the French preposition fused onto the front, in the same way that Darcy and Devereux were formed. The place name's own meaning is not securely known. Nothing in the name describes a person; it records a journey somebody made once.
How the name formed
- d'Airelle
- Darell
- Darrell
Pronouncing Darrell
DARE-ul
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The second is reduced almost to nothing, which is why the record holds Darrell, Darryl, Daryl and Darrel and all four are said the same way.
Nicknames for Darrell
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
- 1916
- Most girls named
- 197036 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1820reached in 1948
- Change vs 1997
- 0.0%5 in 2011, 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.
Darrells among us
people named Darrell 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
Darrell 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 spoken name is completely established and never needs repeating.
- Dare and Dell are two short forms with nothing in common.
- It has a real, locatable Norman history behind it.
- At least four spellings circulate together and this is one of them.
- The record carries it for girls in small numbers as well.
- It is strongly dated to the middle of the last century in American ears.
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What they receive
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Darrell
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Darrells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Darrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darrell in 2025?
- Darrell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Darrell with classmates?
- Darrell 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 Darrell? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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