Darnita
A feminine given name of uncertain origin, possibly a blend of "Darna" and a diminutive suffix.
Name Census estimates that about 228 living Americans carry the first name Darnita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Darnita today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Darnita births was 1983 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Darnita. 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
228
~ 1 in 1,503,309 Americans
Peak year
1983
13 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
1992 SSA rank
#8,914
Tracked since 1956
Census
Darnita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 227 people with the first name Darnita, which placed it at #35,437 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
#35,437
National first-name rank
People counted
227
227 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
94.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Darnita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Darnita is Black at 94.3%. The next largest groups are White (4.0%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Darnita 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 Darnita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American94.3% · 214
- White4.0% · 9
- Two or more races1.3% · 3
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 1
Popularity
Darnita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Darnita from the 1950s through to the 1990s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 77 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Darnita 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 Darnita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Darnita
The name Darnita is a relatively modern invention, likely originating in the early 20th century. It is thought to be a feminized form of the male name Darnell, which itself is an anglicized version of the French surname D'Arnaud or D'Arno. The French surname is derived from the Germanic name Arnwald, made up of the elements "arn" meaning eagle and "wald" meaning ruler.
While the name Darnita does not have any direct historical or religious references, its masculine counterpart Darnell has been recorded as early as the 12th century in England. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Darnell de Deyncourt, a Norman landowner in Yorkshire, England in the late 12th century.
The first recorded use of the name Darnita is relatively recent, with no known examples prior to the 20th century. One of the earliest notable individuals with the name was Darnita Brinson, an American gospel singer and vocalist who performed with the Mississippi Mass Choir in the 1980s and 1990s.
Another notable Darnita was Darnita Paynes, an American basketball player who played for the Detroit Shock in the WNBA from 2002 to 2004. She was born in 1977 and played college basketball at Louisiana Tech University.
Darnita Killian was an American character actress who appeared in various television shows and films throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including roles in "The Parkers" and "Desperate Housewives". She was born in 1959 and passed away in 2018.
Darnita Hughes is an American author and screenwriter, best known for her novel "Blissful Lies" and its subsequent film adaptation. She was born in 1972 and continues to write and work in the entertainment industry.
Darnita Jones was an American singer and songwriter who performed as a backup vocalist for various artists, including Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. She was born in 1959 and passed away in 2022.
People
Darnita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Darnita 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
Darnita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Darnita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 228 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Darnita 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 1,503,309 US residents.
Is Darnita a common name?
We classify Darnita as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 259 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Darnita most popular?
The single biggest year for Darnita was 1983, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Darnita 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 Darnita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 227 people with the name Darnita, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,437 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 Darnita 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 Darnita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Darnita appears almost entirely female. Of the 229 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Darnita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Darnita is Black at 94.3%. The next largest groups are White (4.0%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Darnita most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Darnita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.3% (214 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 Darnita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Darnita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Darnita in the SSA data are female. 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 Darnita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Darnita 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 Darnita 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 Darnita?
You can see how many people have the name Darnita on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.