Darren
Darren was given to 187 boys in 2025, #1,135 among boys’ names; 104,506 Americans have been recorded with it since 1936 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 93,600 Americans named Darren and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 49 years old and half are between 33 and 58.
Darren dropped 181 places in 2025, the #13 drop among the boys’ top 1,000 of 2024.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Darren by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Darren mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Darren is “a male given name originating as a coinage.”
Unknown. A twentieth-century invention, possibly from a rare Irish surname of obscure meaning, possibly from Dara or Daragh, meaning “oak”. It is also the name of an old silver mine near Aberystwyth, Wales.
The name became popular, particularly in the UK, because of a character in the 1960s American TV series Bewitched, actually spelled Darrin.
(person with sense of entitlement): As a rhyming equivalent for Karen.
/ˈdæɹən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Darren?
#1,135 among boys’ names, 2025
Darren fell from #543 in 2015 to #1,135 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.27 to 0.11 per 1,000.
5,963 babies in 1965, the peak
Darren peaked in 1965, when 5,963 babies were given it (5,938 boys, #52 among boys’ names). The 187 births of 2025 are 3% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 187 | #1,135 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 240 | #954 | 0.14 |
| 2023 | 224 | #978 | 0.13 |
| 2022 | 284 | #853 | 0.16 |
| 2021 | 305 | #803 | 0.17 |
| 2020 | 345 | #718 | 0.20 |
| 2019 | 374 | #684 | 0.21 |
| 2018 | 393 | #653 | 0.22 |
| 2017 | 463 | #586 | 0.25 |
| 2016 | 528 | #548 | 0.28 |
Every recorded year (85)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 527 | #543 | 0.27 |
| 2014 | 569 | #494 | 0.30 |
| 2013 | 593 | #468 | 0.31 |
| 2012 | 667 | #423 | 0.35 |
| 2011 | 681 | #415 | 0.36 |
| 2010 | 695 | #407 | 0.36 |
| 2009 | 765 | #393 | 0.39 |
| 2008 | 799 | #384 | 0.39 |
| 2007 | 876 | #361 | 0.42 |
| 2006 | 824 | #361 | 0.40 |
| 2005 | 864 | #343 | 0.43 |
| 2004 | 891 | #337 | 0.45 |
| 2003 | 977 | #306 | 0.49 |
| 2002 | 969 | #302 | 0.50 |
| 2001 | 948 | #304 | 0.49 |
| 2000 | 1,007 | #298 | 0.51 |
| 1999 | 1,029 | #283 | 0.54 |
| 1998 | 1,028 | #279 | 0.54 |
| 1997 | 1,020 | #274 | 0.54 |
| 1996 | 1,140 | #253 | 0.60 |
| 1995 | 1,290 | #230 | 0.68 |
| 1994 | 1,444 | #201 | 0.75 |
| 1993 | 1,432 | #210 | 0.73 |
| 1992 | 1,323 | #227 | 0.66 |
| 1991 | 1,306 | #226 | 0.65 |
| 1990 | 1,507 | #199 | 0.73 |
| 1989 | 1,625 | #183 | 0.81 |
| 1988 | 1,599 | #177 | 0.84 |
| 1987 | 1,602 | #170 | 0.86 |
| 1986 | 1,578 | #168 | 0.86 |
| 1985 | 1,701 | #161 | 0.92 |
| 1984 | 1,548 | #172 | 0.86 |
| 1983 | 1,599 | #164 | 0.89 |
| 1982 | 1,487 | #174 | 0.82 |
| 1981 | 1,426 | #176 | 0.80 |
| 1980 | 1,533 | #163 | 0.86 |
| 1979 | 1,503 | #164 | 0.87 |
| 1978 | 1,453 | #166 | 0.88 |
| 1977 | 1,503 | #158 | 0.91 |
| 1976 | 1,693 | #147 | 1.1 |
| 1975 | 2,032 | #126 | 1.3 |
| 1974 | 2,074 | #127 | 1.3 |
| 1973 | 2,288 | #113 | 1.5 |
| 1972 | 2,675 | #106 | 1.6 |
| 1971 | 3,156 | #100 | 1.8 |
| 1970 | 4,197 | #75 | 2.3 |
| 1969 | 4,660 | #60 | 2.6 |
| 1968 | 4,642 | #60 | 2.7 |
| 1967 | 4,440 | #63 | 2.5 |
| 1966 | 4,718 | #63 | 2.6 |
| 1965 | 5,938 | #52 | 3.2 |
| 1964 | 2,644 | #127 | 1.3 |
| 1963 | 2,081 | #158 | 1.0 |
| 1962 | 1,923 | #165 | 0.93 |
| 1961 | 1,783 | #174 | 0.84 |
| 1960 | 2,209 | #156 | 1.0 |
| 1959 | 1,299 | #213 | 0.61 |
| 1958 | 417 | #382 | 0.20 |
| 1957 | 71 | #903 | 0.03 |
| 1956 | 44 | #1,142 | 0.02 |
| 1955 | 34 | #1,295 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 39 | #1,204 | 0.02 |
| 1953 | 43 | #1,124 | 0.02 |
| 1952 | 68 | #845 | 0.03 |
| 1951 | 22 | #1,605 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 11 | #2,344 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #3,806 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 7 | #3,060 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 11 | #2,398 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 8 | #2,747 | under 0.01 |
| 1945 | 9 | #2,432 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 6 | #3,294 | under 0.01 |
| 1941 | 6 | #3,220 | under 0.01 |
| 1939 | 6 | #3,187 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 7 | #2,939 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Darren a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Darren has been given almost only to boys: 569 girls in 85 years of records.
Girls and boys named Darren: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Darren, and how old are they?
93,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 90% of the 104,506 Americans ever recorded as Darren. The median Darren alive today is 49 years old; half are between 33 and 58.
The 2020 Census counted 87,892 people named Darren (245 women and girls, 87,647 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 95,094 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 11 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 9,850 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 42,300 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 22,600 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 13,800 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,000 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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 Darren born?
The states with the most babies named Darren are California, New York and Texas, with 27% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 13,256 | #965 | 1.1× |
| New York | 8,420 | #890 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 5,812 | #1,504 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 4,843 | #1,162 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 4,610 | #803 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 4,293 | #1,318 | 0.8× |
| Louisiana | 3,573 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| Florida | 3,468 | #853 | 0.9× |
| Michigan | 3,463 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 3,378 | not ranked | 1.1× |
Where Darren is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Darren is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1936 it was given 2.1 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 Darren with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 229,920 babies since 1880, Darren is the most given (45% of them). In 2025 it was given to 187 of their 759 babies (25%), the second most given that year.
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 Darren
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 Darren and names like it
- Compare Darren and DarinBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sDarren peaked in 1965.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Darren since 1910.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Darren: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1965The year the most babies were named Darren.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Darren alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with DMost given first.