Darling
Darling was given to 47 girls in 2025, #3,300 among girls’ names; 1,060 Americans have been recorded with it since 1920 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Darling by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Darling?
#3,300 among girls’ names, 2025
Darling rose from #5,876 in 2015 to #3,300 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 12.3 to 29.2 per million.
52 babies in 2024, the peak
Darling peaked in 2024, when 52 babies were given it (47 girls, #3,350 among girls’ names). The 47 births of 2025 are 90% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 47 | #3,300 | 29.2 |
| 2024 | 47 | #3,350 | 29.0 |
| 2023 | 33 | #4,301 | 20.6 |
| 2022 | 22 | #5,678 | 13.4 |
| 2021 | 28 | #4,744 | 17.1 |
| 2020 | 35 | #4,029 | 21.7 |
| 2019 | 27 | #4,939 | 16.1 |
| 2018 | 20 | #6,075 | 11.8 |
| 2017 | 25 | #5,216 | 14.5 |
| 2016 | 25 | #5,324 | 14.1 |
Every recorded year (77)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 22 | #5,876 | 12.3 |
| 2014 | 29 | #4,801 | 16.2 |
| 2013 | 24 | #5,533 | 13.7 |
| 2012 | 18 | #6,936 | 10.2 |
| 2011 | 21 | #6,198 | 11.9 |
| 2010 | 17 | #7,290 | 9.6 |
| 2009 | 17 | #7,426 | 9.3 |
| 2008 | 16 | #7,836 | 8.5 |
| 2007 | 21 | #6,381 | 10.9 |
| 2006 | 19 | #6,650 | 10.0 |
| 2005 | 12 | #9,031 | 6.5 |
| 2004 | 15 | #7,484 | 8.2 |
| 2003 | 12 | #8,644 | 6.6 |
| 2002 | 16 | #6,781 | 8.9 |
| 2001 | 11 | #8,904 | 6.1 |
| 2000 | 13 | #7,680 | 7.2 |
| 1999 | 7 | #11,665 | 3.9 |
| 1998 | 10 | #8,737 | 5.7 |
| 1997 | 12 | #7,382 | 6.9 |
| 1996 | 14 | #6,472 | 8.0 |
| 1995 | 16 | #5,728 | 9.1 |
| 1994 | 14 | #6,396 | 7.8 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,206 | 5.5 |
| 1992 | 11 | #7,633 | 6.0 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,324 | 7.5 |
| 1990 | 13 | #6,547 | 6.8 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,085 | 6.0 |
| 1988 | 15 | #5,385 | 8.4 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,137 | 3.5 |
| 1986 | 11 | #6,257 | 6.4 |
| 1985 | 8 | #7,736 | 4.6 |
| 1984 | 11 | #5,987 | 6.5 |
| 1983 | 9 | #6,831 | 5.4 |
| 1982 | 14 | #4,989 | 8.3 |
| 1981 | 13 | #5,324 | 7.8 |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,355 | 4.2 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,234 | 4.4 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,630 | 5.5 |
| 1973 | 5 | #8,708 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,486 | 3.9 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,256 | 3.4 |
| 1969 | 10 | #4,782 | 5.9 |
| 1968 | 7 | #5,748 | 4.3 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,003 | 3.0 |
| 1966 | 9 | #4,564 | 5.3 |
| 1965 | 10 | #4,257 | 5.7 |
| 1964 | 11 | #4,144 | 5.8 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,422 | 3.6 |
| 1962 | 10 | #4,327 | 5.1 |
| 1959 | 13 | #3,472 | 6.4 |
| 1958 | 8 | #4,600 | 4.0 |
| 1957 | 8 | #4,613 | 3.9 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,139 | 2.5 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,333 | 3.1 |
| 1954 | 5 | #5,910 | 2.6 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,175 | 3.2 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,586 | 2.8 |
| 1949 | 9 | #3,677 | 5.3 |
| 1948 | 12 | #3,001 | 7.1 |
| 1947 | 9 | #3,772 | 5.1 |
| 1941 | 5 | #4,541 | 4.1 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,387 | 4.7 |
| 1936 | 5 | #4,325 | 4.8 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,461 | 4.7 |
| 1929 | 7 | #3,749 | 6.3 |
| 1925 | 6 | #4,545 | 4.9 |
| 1920 | 7 | #4,053 | 5.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Darling a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,060 Americans recorded as Darling, 99% are girls and 1% boys. In 2025 it went to 47 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Darling: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Darling, and how old are they?
An estimated 980 Americans named Darling and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 7 and 38. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,905 people named Darling (1,629 women and girls, 276 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 791 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Darling born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 8 | #2,321 | 1.4× |
| Texas | 8 | #2,453 | 0.3× |
Where Darling is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Darling is most over-represented in California: since 1920 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Darling with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Darling
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Darling and names like it
- Compare Darling and AdoraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sDarling peaked in 2024.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Darling since 1910.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Darling.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Darling alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with DMost given first.