Duran
Masculine · “Latin "enduring”
Duran peaks in the American data in 1984, and that is the year Duran Duran had three top-ten singles in the United States. The band took its name from a villain in the 1968 film Barbarella, spelled Durand Durand — so the given name arrives by way of a band by way of a science-fiction character.
How old is the name Duran?
Duran first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Duran alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 1,400 people named Duran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Duran most popular?
Duran peaked in 1984, reaching #1084 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 6,110 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Where it comes from
From durandus to Duran
The story of Duran
Durand was a genuinely popular given name in eleventh- and twelfth-century France, then followed the usual path of medieval given names into hereditary surnames and out of first-name use. In the Spanish-speaking world Durán survived as a major surname, which is one of the two routes into American data — the other being the boxer Roberto Durán, world champion across four weight classes, whose fame in the United States runs from 1972 through the 1980 fights with Sugar Ray Leonard. The 1984 peak lines up with the band rather than the boxer, but both are in play, and the surname-as-first-name pattern of that decade is what made either usable.
Meaning
Latin "enduring, lasting"
From Latin durandus, a gerundive of durare, to last or endure, meaning roughly one who is to endure. It became the medieval personal name Durand, widespread in France and Catalonia, and from there one of the most common surnames in France. Durán with a final stress is the standard Spanish and Catalan form. The English words durable, duration and endure are from the same verb.
How the name formed
- durandus
- Durand
- Durán
Related forms: Durand · Durán · Duran · Durante
Pronouncing Duran
doo-RAHN
Two syllables. Spanish stresses the second and writes the accent, Durán; American English often says DUR-an with the stress moved forward, which is the band's pronunciation.
Nicknames for Duran
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
- 1925
- Most boys named
- 198561 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1084reached in 1984
- Change vs 2022
- +37.5%11 in 2025, 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.
Duran in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Durand in French — same name
- Durán in Spanish — same name
- Duran in Catalan — same name
- Durante in Italian — related form
Durans among us
people named Duran are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Duran
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Phillips test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Duran's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Phillips climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Phillips's path sketches the road Duran is walking now.
Duran 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
Duran beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Duran in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning, enduring, is settled and unusually direct for a surname name.
- It works in English and Spanish with only a stress shift between them.
- Two syllables, five letters, no spelling ambiguity.
- The band association is strong for anyone who was listening in the 1980s.
- English and Spanish stress it differently, so the same person hears two versions.
- It is far more often a surname than a first name.
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What they receive
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Duran
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Durans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Duran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Duran in 2025?
- Duran ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Duran?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Duran — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Duran with classmates?
- Duran will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Duran
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Joesph#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Duran? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Duran and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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