Darrell
- Pronunciation
- [Da-rrell]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Dearly Loved
- Origin
- English
About the Name Darrell
Darrell is an English name generally understood to carry the meaning dearly loved, though its origins are more topographic than sentimental: the name developed from an Old French surname derived from a Norman locality, and was carried into England after the Conquest as a family name before eventually shifting to use as a given name. The warmth of the folk meaning dearly loved has nonetheless shaped how the name is perceived by modern parents, lending it an emotional resonance that complements its strong, two-syllable Anglo sound.
In US Social Security records, Darrell first entered the male top-1000 in 1954 and climbed to its peak rank of #86 in 1967, riding the mid-century enthusiasm for strong masculine names with an easy cadence. From that high point it descended gradually over the following five decades, finally dropping out of the top-1000 in 2017 after accumulating 58,081 top-1000 births — a substantial total that reflects a name with genuine generational reach. As recently as 2017 it sat at #895, demonstrating that even after its peak had passed by half a century, a core of American families continued to choose it.
Darrell's enduring presence across more than sixty years in the rankings speaks to its versatility: accessible enough for everyday use, grounded enough to carry adult authority. Recorded variants form one of the richer families — Darel, Dariel, Dariell, Darrill, Darroll, Darryll, Daryl, Daryle, Daryll, Derell, Derrall, Derrell, Derrill, and Derryl — a sprawling set of phonetic and spelling alternatives that collectively reflect how naturally the name invites personal customization while keeping its core sound intact.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Darrell
US Popularity History (1954–2017)
Annual US births named Darrell by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1958 with 4,770 boys named Darrell (boy rank #90 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2017, ranked #895 for boys (240 US births). That's 805 places below its 1958 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Darrell Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Darrell the strongest states are Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana.
Strongest boys-name states
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Darrell in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darel | See Darlene. | Female | Anglo |
| Dariel | Variant Of Darrel Open. | Male | English |
| Dariell | Variant Of Darrel Open. | Male | English |
| Darrill | Variations Of Daryl Meaning Dearly Loved. | Female | English |
| Darroll | Variant Of Darrel Open. | Male | English |
| Darryll | Variant Of Darrell. | Male | English |
| Daryl | Dearly Loved: Variant Of Darrell. | Male | English |
| Daryle | Variant Of Darrell. | Male | English |
| Daryll | Variations Of Daryl Meaning Dearly Loved. | Female | English |
| Derell | Variant Of Darrel Open. | Male | English |
| Derrall | Variant Of Darrel Open. | Male | French |
| Derrell | Variant Of Darrel Open. | Male | English |
| Derrill | Variant Of Darrel Open. | Male | English |
| Derryl | Variant Of Darrell. | Male | English |
Looking for names like Darrell?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Darrell to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Darrell against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).