Darryl
Feminine · “From Airelle”
Darryl is given to boys far more often — 92,285 boys against 1,134 girls since 1880. See Darryl as a boy name
Darryl is the only one of the four spellings with a y, and the y is doing what an e does everywhere else. The final syllable of this name is a neutral vowel plus an l, and English writes that with an e, an a, an o or a y depending on nothing at all; the record holds all four.
How old is the name Darryl?
Darryl first appears in US birth records in 1936 — 89 years ago. The typical Darryl alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 1,000 people named Darryl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darryl most popular?
Darryl peaked in 1949, reaching #1666 nationally. See the whole 1949 chart.
Where it comes from
From Airelle to Darryl
The story of Darryl
The most consequential American to carry the name got his start writing for a dog. Darryl Zanuck sold stories to Hollywood in his early twenties and wrote a run of films for a German shepherd who was one of the biggest box-office draws of the silent era; on the strength of that he became a studio executive at twenty-six, ran production at Warner Brothers, left after a dispute about pay cuts, and founded what became Twentieth Century Fox. He personally pushed through a series of films about subjects the industry considered unsellable. The whole career started with scripts for an animal who could not read them.
Meaning
From Airelle
A Norman surname taken from a place in Calvados, with the French preposition fused onto the front. The place is named after a berry. Nothing in the name describes a person, and none of the four spellings is closer to the original than any other.
How the name formed
- Airelle
- Darrell
- Darryl
Pronouncing Darryl
DARE-ul
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The second is reduced to nothing, which is why Darryl, Darrell, Daryl and Darrel are all said identically and all four are in the records.
Nicknames for Darryl
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
- 1936
- Most girls named
- 196045 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1666reached in 1949
- Change vs 2001
- −25.0%6 in 2011, from 8
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.
Darryls among us
people named Darryl 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
Darryl 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.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- The Norman history behind it is real and locatable.
- Four spellings circulate together and none of them is standard, so spelling it out is permanent.
- 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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Darryl
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Darryls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Darryl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darryl in 2025?
- Darryl is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Darryl with classmates?
- Darryl 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 Darryl? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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