Darcelle
A feminine name derived from the French word "dard", meaning arrow or dart.
Name Census estimates that about 296 living Americans carry the first name Darcelle. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Darcelle today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Darcelle births was 1953 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Darcelle. 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
296
~ 1 in 1,157,954 Americans
Peak year
1953
22 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
1988 SSA rank
#7,251
Tracked since 1952
Census
Darcelle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 406 people with the first name Darcelle, which placed it at #23,937 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
#23,937
National first-name rank
People counted
406
406 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Darcelle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Darcelle is Black at 46.6%. The next largest groups are White (40.1%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Darcelle 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 Darcelle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.6% · 189
- White40.1% · 163
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 22
- Two or more races4.2% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 7
Popularity
Darcelle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Darcelle from the 1950s through to the 1980s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 120 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Darcelle remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Darcelle 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 Darcelle 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 Darcelle
The name Darcelle is believed to have originated from the French language, with its roots potentially dating back to the Middle Ages. It is thought to be a feminine form derived from the Old French name Darcy or Darcis, which itself may have evolved from the Latin name Dardanus or the Greek name Dardanos.
One possible origin of Darcelle could be traced back to the ancient city of Dardanus, located in the region of Troad in what is now northwestern Turkey. According to Greek mythology, Dardanus was a son of Zeus and the founder of the city, which later gave its name to the Dardanelles Strait and the Dardanian kingdom.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Darcelle are found in French historical records from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance period. One notable bearer of the name was Darcelle de Roche, a 15th-century French noblewoman and courtier who served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne of Brittany.
In the 17th century, Darcelle Gilberte was a French actress and comedian who performed in Paris and is mentioned in several contemporary accounts of the Parisian theater scene.
During the 18th century, Darcelle Delaunay was a French painter and portraitist active in the court of King Louis XV. Her works can be found in several prestigious art collections across Europe.
In the 19th century, Darcelle Marin was a French writer and journalist who contributed to various Parisian publications and was known for her literary salons attended by prominent figures of the time.
Another historical figure with the name Darcelle was Darcelle Duval, a French opera singer and soprano who performed in major opera houses across Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
While the name Darcelle has its roots in French culture and history, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of the world, particularly in regions with French cultural influence or connections.
People
Darcelle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Darcelle 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
Darcelle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Darcelle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 296 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Darcelle 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 1,157,954 US residents.
Is Darcelle a common name?
We classify Darcelle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 361 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Darcelle most popular?
The single biggest year for Darcelle was 1953, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Darcelle is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Darcelle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 406 people with the name Darcelle, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,937 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 Darcelle 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 Darcelle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Darcelle leans strongly female. 386 people counted with this name were female (96.3%), compared with 15 male bearers (3.7%). 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 Darcelle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Darcelle is Black at 46.6%. The next largest groups are White (40.1%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Darcelle most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Darcelle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.6% (189 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 Darcelle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Darcelle a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Darcelle 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 Darcelle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Darcelle 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 Darcelle 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 have the name Darcelle?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.