Derryl
Masculine · “From Airelle”
Derryl is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 901 boys against 15 girls since 1880.
Derryl carries a French preposition fused onto the front of a place name, which is something English does constantly without noticing. The d is not part of the word — it is the word of.
How old is the name Derryl?
Derryl first appears in US birth records in 1934 — 91 years ago. The typical Derryl alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 700 people named Derryl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Derryl most popular?
Derryl peaked in 1962, reaching #1172 nationally. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From d'Airelle to Derryl
The story of Derryl
English is full of these. Disney is d'Isigny, a family from a town in Normandy. Darcy is d'Arcy. Dabney, Devereux, Dampier and Danvers all begin with the same small word meaning from. French kept the apostrophe and the space; English swallowed both, so that a preposition ended up as the first letter of a surname and then, when American families started giving surnames to sons, as the first letter of a first name. Nobody hearing this name would guess that its opening consonant is a grammatical particle rather than part of the word — and the y in the middle is the other end of the same process, a nineteen-thirties American respelling habit that put a y into men's names a full generation before it did the same to women's.
Meaning
From Airelle, a place in Normandy
The surname behind the name is a Norman one built from de and a place. Centuries of English use fused the preposition to the name, so that what was originally two words describing where a family came from is now one word that looks like a single root.
How the name formed
- d'Airelle
- Darrell
- Derryl
Pronouncing Derryl
DER-ul
Two syllables, stress at the front. The second syllable is barely there, which is why so many spellings of this name exist.
Nicknames for Derryl
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
- 1934
- Most boys named
- 196244 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1172reached in 1962
- Change vs 2007
- 0.0%6 in 2008, 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.
Derryls among us
people named Derryl 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
Derryl 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
- It is read correctly on sight, with nothing difficult in it.
- It has a genuine Norman history rather than an invented one.
- It is rare while the name behind it is entirely familiar.
- Darrell, Darryl and Daryl are all in use and his will be written as one of them.
- The spelling is recorded for a few girls, but nearly every child with it is a boy.
- The name is closely tied to one stretch of American decades.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Derryl to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Derryl? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Derryl
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Derryls 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 Derryl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Derryl in 2025?
- Derryl is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Derryl with classmates?
- Derryl 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 Derryl? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Derryl and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle