Darnel
Darnel was last recorded in 2021, when 8 babies were given it; 1,052 Americans have been recorded with it between 1937 and 2021 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Darnel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Darnel?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #9,000, in 2021; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
36 babies in 1986, the peak
Darnel peaked in 1986, when 36 boys were given it, #1,735 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 8 | #9,000 | 4.6 |
| 2018 | 6 | #11,071 | 3.3 |
| 2017 | 11 | #7,201 | 5.9 |
| 2015 | 5 | #12,487 | 2.6 |
| 2013 | 6 | #11,035 | 3.2 |
| 2012 | 9 | #8,300 | 4.7 |
| 2010 | 11 | #7,180 | 5.7 |
| 2009 | 13 | #6,508 | 6.6 |
| 2008 | 14 | #6,134 | 6.9 |
| 2007 | 12 | #6,717 | 5.8 |
Every recorded year (67)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 14 | #5,846 | 6.8 |
| 2005 | 15 | #5,342 | 7.5 |
| 2004 | 12 | #6,211 | 6.0 |
| 2003 | 8 | #8,006 | 4.0 |
| 2002 | 16 | #4,745 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 13 | #5,435 | 6.7 |
| 2000 | 24 | #3,440 | 12.2 |
| 1999 | 20 | #3,723 | 10.4 |
| 1998 | 13 | #4,934 | 6.8 |
| 1997 | 17 | #3,912 | 9.0 |
| 1996 | 20 | #3,425 | 10.6 |
| 1995 | 23 | #3,033 | 12.1 |
| 1994 | 31 | #2,448 | 16.0 |
| 1993 | 22 | #3,063 | 11.2 |
| 1992 | 21 | #3,128 | 10.5 |
| 1991 | 18 | #3,352 | 8.9 |
| 1990 | 33 | #2,179 | 16.1 |
| 1989 | 29 | #2,298 | 14.5 |
| 1988 | 23 | #2,525 | 12.0 |
| 1987 | 18 | #2,861 | 9.6 |
| 1986 | 36 | #1,735 | 19.5 |
| 1985 | 16 | #2,971 | 8.7 |
| 1984 | 23 | #2,243 | 12.7 |
| 1983 | 16 | #2,812 | 8.9 |
| 1982 | 17 | #2,732 | 9.4 |
| 1981 | 14 | #3,069 | 7.8 |
| 1980 | 26 | #2,069 | 14.6 |
| 1979 | 22 | #2,249 | 12.8 |
| 1978 | 18 | #2,498 | 11.0 |
| 1977 | 10 | #3,660 | 6.1 |
| 1976 | 26 | #1,887 | 16.6 |
| 1975 | 14 | #2,782 | 9.0 |
| 1974 | 17 | #2,378 | 10.8 |
| 1973 | 13 | #2,743 | 8.3 |
| 1972 | 18 | #2,176 | 11.1 |
| 1971 | 17 | #2,302 | 9.6 |
| 1970 | 20 | #2,010 | 10.8 |
| 1969 | 14 | #2,336 | 7.8 |
| 1968 | 12 | #2,475 | 6.9 |
| 1967 | 12 | #2,383 | 6.9 |
| 1966 | 13 | #2,242 | 7.3 |
| 1965 | 10 | #2,652 | 5.4 |
| 1964 | 15 | #2,132 | 7.5 |
| 1963 | 17 | #1,976 | 8.4 |
| 1962 | 17 | #1,981 | 8.2 |
| 1961 | 12 | #2,440 | 5.6 |
| 1960 | 11 | #2,571 | 5.2 |
| 1959 | 7 | #3,344 | 3.3 |
| 1958 | 9 | #2,872 | 4.2 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,108 | 2.3 |
| 1954 | 6 | #3,528 | 2.9 |
| 1953 | 7 | #3,199 | 3.5 |
| 1952 | 5 | #3,850 | 2.6 |
| 1951 | 7 | #3,130 | 3.7 |
| 1947 | 7 | #3,146 | 3.8 |
| 1941 | 5 | #3,616 | 4.1 |
| 1937 | 7 | #2,968 | 6.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Darnel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,052 Americans recorded as Darnel, 4% are girls and 96% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Darnel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Darnel, and how old are they?
An estimated 952 Americans named Darnel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 40 years old and half are between 29 and 53. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,035 people named Darnel (135 women and girls, 900 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 971 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% above that prediction.
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 Darnel born?
The states with the most babies named Darnel are New York, Florida and California, with 100% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 115 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Florida | 11 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| California | 5 | not ranked | 0.0× |
Where Darnel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Darnel is most over-represented in New York: since 1937 it was given 1.5 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 boys’ 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 Darnel with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Darnel?
Darnel is a less common spelling of Darnell: SSA has recorded 1,052 Darnel and 31,018 Darnell since 1880.
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 32,232 babies since 1880, Darnel is the second most given (3.3% of them). In 2025 none of their 62 babies recorded by SSA was a Darnel (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Darnel
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 Darnel and names like it
- Compare Darnel and DarnellBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sDarnel peaked in 1986.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Darnel since 1910.
- The top names of 1986The year the most babies were named Darnel.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Darnel alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with DMost given first.