Darel
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "from the meadow valley".
Name Census estimates that about 1,492 living Americans carry the first name Darel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Darel today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Darel births was 1956 (44 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Darel. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 229,728 Americans
Peak year
1956
44 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,222
Tracked since 1915
Census
Darel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,572 people with the first name Darel, which placed it at #9,016 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#9,016
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,572 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Darel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Darel is White at 62.4%. The next largest groups are Black (21.8%) and Hispanic (10.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Darel described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Darel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.4% · 981
- Black or African American21.8% · 342
- Hispanic or Latino10.8% · 170
- Two or more races2.5% · 39
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 24
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 16
Gender
Gender distribution for Darel
Out of the 2,121 babies given the name Darel since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Darel as a male name
- Ranked #6,222 in 2024
- 14 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1956 (44 births)
Darel as a female name
- Ranked #12,243 in 1988
- 5 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1988 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Darel leans strongly male. 1,502 people counted with this name were male (95.7%), compared with 67 female bearers (4.3%).
Popularity
Darel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Darel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 367 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Darel by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Darel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Darels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Darel, while Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Darel
The given name Darel has its origins rooted in the ancient Hebrew language, tracing back to the biblical era around the 6th century BCE. It is believed to be a variant or diminutive form of the Hebrew name Dariel, which itself derives from the components "dar" meaning "dwelling" and "el" referring to God. This suggests that the name Darel may have an underlying meaning of "God's dwelling" or "dwelling with God."
In the Old Testament of the Bible, there are references to the name Dariel, which is closely related to Darel. The book of Ezra mentions a man named Dariel among the list of those who returned from the Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem. However, there are no direct mentions of the specific spelling "Darel" in ancient Hebrew texts.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Darel appear in historical records from medieval Europe, particularly in England and France. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Darel de Windsor, a Norman knight who lived in the 12th century and was associated with the town of Windsor in Berkshire, England.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Darel. In the 16th century, Darel Sykes (c. 1520–1587) was an English clergyman and academic who served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. During the 17th century, Darel Havilland (1642–1701) was a prominent English lawyer and judge who served as a Puisne Justice of the Court of King's Bench.
In the 19th century, Darel Judah Buchler (1832–1891) was a German-born Jewish scholar and author who made significant contributions to the study of Talmudic literature. Another notable figure from this era was Darel F. Burney (1863–1938), an American lawyer and politician who served as the 25th Lieutenant Governor of Kansas.
In the 20th century, Darel Seager (1909–1987) was a British archaeologist and academic who specialized in the study of ancient Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. Additionally, Darel Catching (1926–2017) was an American football player who played as a halfback for the Detroit Lions in the National Football League during the late 1940s.
People
Darel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Darel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Darel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Darel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,492 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Darel going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 229,728 US residents.
Is Darel a common name?
We classify Darel as "Rare". It ranks above 92.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,121 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Darel most popular?
The single biggest year for Darel was 1956, when 44 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Darel is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Darel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,572 people with the name Darel, or 0.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,016 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Darel in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Darel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Darel leans strongly male. 1,502 people counted with this name were male (95.7%), compared with 67 female bearers (4.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Darel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Darel is White at 62.4%. The next largest groups are Black (21.8%) and Hispanic (10.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Darel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Darel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.4% (981 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Darel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Darel a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Darel in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Darel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Darel in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Darel can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Darel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.