Darryll
Masculine
Darryll ends in a doubled l, which is a British spelling habit that American English deliberately dropped. Britain writes traveled and canceled with two; America writes them with one, on a rule Noah Webster argued for and largely won. The name is not a verb, but the instinct behind the doubling is the same one.
How old is the name Darryll?
Darryll first appears in US birth records in 1936 — 89 years ago. The typical Darryll alive today was born around 1966, making them about 59 years old. About 1,100 people named Darryll are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darryll most popular?
Darryll peaked in 1960, reaching #951 nationally. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A place in Normandy of unrecovered meaning to Darryll
Our story of Darryll
A surname used as a first name inherits a license that an inherited first name does not have. Traditional first names are policed: there is a right way to spell John, and a family who spells it otherwise is understood to be doing something. Surnames were never standardized in the same way. Parish registers spelled a family's name three ways in one generation, clerks wrote what they heard, and the variants survived side by side into the era of printed documents. When such a name crosses over and starts being given to children, it brings that history with it — nobody can say a spelling is wrong, because the name never had a correct one — and the result is families of first names with four and five accepted forms and no standard among them.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The surname behind the name comes from a place in Normandy, and the meaning of that place name has never been established. So the name resolves to a location and stops. Nothing in this spelling bears on the question: the doubled letters are English conventions applied long after the name had lost whatever sense it started with.
How the name formed
- A place in Normandy of unrecovered meaning
- A Norman family surname taken to England
- Crossing to first-name use in America
- Four spellings, of which this is the fullest
Pronouncing Darryll
DAIR-ul
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the second reduced almost to nothing. Some American families put the stress at the back instead, giving duh-REL, and the spelling supports both.
Nicknames for Darryll
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 boys named
- 196063 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #951reached in 1960
- Change vs 2009
- −16.7%5 in 2016, 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.
Darrylls among us
people named Darryll 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
Darryll 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 completely familiar and needs no coaching.
- It works with a wide range of surnames and rhythms.
- The spelling is the fullest of the family and unmistakable on paper.
- Four spellings are in circulation and yours will be written as one of the others.
- Neither doubling is audible, so the spelling has to be given every time.
- No meaning can be given, because the place name behind it is unexplained.
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Darryll
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Darrylls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Darryll are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darryll in 2025?
- Darryll is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Darryll with classmates?
- Darryll 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 Darryll? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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