Darris
Masculine · “holding firm the good”
Darris is given to both — 1,991 boys and 98 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
A Persian king had his own account of how he took the throne carved into a cliff face in three languages, three hundred feet up. Two and a half thousand years later a British officer copied it down at considerable risk, and the Old Persian half became the key that unlocked cuneiform.
How old is the name Darris?
Darris first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Darris alive today was born around 1979, making them about 46 years old. About 1,700 people named Darris are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darris most popular?
Darris peaked in 1983, reaching #1166 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 10,842 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Where it comes from
From Darayavaus to Darris
The story of Darris
The Behistun inscription is Darius the Great's version of events: how the throne was usurped, how he killed the usurper, and how nine kings rebelled and were defeated. He had it cut in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian on a cliff above a road, deliberately out of reach. Henry Rawlinson copied the Old Persian in the 1830s hanging off ladders, worked out the script, and used the trilingual text the way the Rosetta Stone was used for Egyptian. Everything anyone can read of Assyrian and Babylonian literature — the law codes, the Gilgamesh poem, the letters — came through that cliff. And the king's name is in it, spelled out by the king.
Meaningscholars disagree
holding firm the good
If the name descends from Darius, the Old Persian is Darayavaus, usually read as one who holds firm the good — the king's own inscription supplies the elements. Darris may equally be a modern American formation on Darrell or Darren. Neither has been demonstrated.
How the name formed
- Darayavaus
- Darius
- Darris
Related forms: Dariush
Pronouncing Darris
DAR-iss
Two syllables, stress on the first. duh-RISS, with the weight at the end, is also used. Darius, the fuller name, is said duh-RY-us in English and dah-ree-OOSH in Persian.
Nicknames for Darris
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
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 198360 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1166reached in 1983
- Change vs 2021
- −16.7%5 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.
Darris in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dariush in Persian — related form
Darriss among us
people named Darris are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Darris
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Darris
- #12008
- Darris on the 2025 chart
- #907
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Darris went to 5 boys in 2025, but Daris is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 21, which makes it the 907th most-given boys’ name of the year — 11,101 places above the chart.
- Daris16
- Darris5
About 1 boy in 81,337 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 341,615 for Darris itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lavell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Darris's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lavell climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lavell's path sketches the road Darris is walking now.
Darris 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
Darris beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Darris in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One of its possible sources is documented by its own bearer in his own words.
- Two syllables with nothing hard to say.
- It serves either child, and the records show both.
- Darrius, Darius and Derris are all in use and close enough to be confused.
- The stress is genuinely unsettled between the two syllables.
- The connection to the Persian name is plausible rather than demonstrated.
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What they receive
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Darris
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Darriss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Darris are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Darris?
- Darris is one of 2 recorded spellings. Daris is the more common one — 16 births in 2025 against 5 for Darris.
- How popular is the name Darris in 2025?
- Darris ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Darris?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Darris — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Darris with classmates?
- Darris will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Darris
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Darris? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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