Darlington
An English place name derived from the Old English words "deor" (deer) and "tun" (enclosure or town).
Name Census estimates that about 12 living Americans carry the first name Darlington. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Darlington today is around 4 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Darlington births was 2021 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Darlington. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Darlington with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Darlington. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
12
~ 1 in 28,562,862 Americans
Peak year
2021
7 babies that year
Average age
4
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,628
Tracked since 2021
Census
Darlington in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 312 people with the first name Darlington, which placed it at #28,685 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
#28,685
National first-name rank
People counted
312
312 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Darlington
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Darlington is Black at 84.3%. The next largest groups are White (7.4%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Darlington 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 Darlington at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.3% · 263
- White7.4% · 23
- Two or more races3.5% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 6
Popularity
Darlington: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Darlington 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 Darlington during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020s | 12 | 0 | 12 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Darlington
The name Darlington is believed to have originated in England during the Middle Ages. It is a place name derived from the town of Darlington in County Durham, which was first recorded as Derenington in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is thought to be a combination of the Old English words "deor" meaning deer, and "ing" meaning a meadow or pasture, suggesting it was originally a meadow or pasture where deer grazed.
Darlington as a given name likely emerged from the place name, as it was a common practice in medieval times for people to adopt the name of their place of origin or residence as a surname or given name. The earliest recorded use of Darlington as a first name dates back to the 13th century, when a man named Darlington de Darlington was mentioned in historical records from 1273.
In the 14th century, a notable figure with the name Darlington was Sir Darlington de Wyvill, a knight and landowner from Yorkshire, who lived from around 1320 to 1385. Another early bearer of the name was John Darlington, a scholar and theologian from Oxford University, who lived from approximately 1380 to 1457.
During the Renaissance period, a famous Darlington was William Darlington, an English botanist and physician who lived from 1782 to 1863. He was known for his extensive work on the flora of Pennsylvania and his contributions to the study of plant taxonomy.
In the 19th century, Darlington Crisp was a notable English architect and surveyor who lived from 1808 to 1882. He was responsible for designing several churches and public buildings in London and the surrounding areas.
Another notable Darlington from the 19th century was Darlington Parry, a Welsh composer and musician who lived from 1829 to 1902. He is particularly remembered for his contributions to Welsh choral music and for composing the popular song "Ar Hyd y Nos" (All Through the Night).
While the name Darlington has its roots in England, it has since spread to other parts of the world and continues to be used as a given name in various cultures and societies.
People
Darlington + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Darlington 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
Darlington: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Darlington?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Darlington 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 28,562,862 US residents.
Is Darlington a common name?
We classify Darlington as "Very Rare". It ranks above 32.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Darlington most popular?
The single biggest year for Darlington was 2021, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Darlington is about 4 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Darlington in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 312 people with the name Darlington, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,685 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 Darlington 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 Darlington?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Darlington leans strongly male. 293 people counted with this name were male (95.1%), compared with 15 female bearers (4.9%). 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 Darlington?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Darlington is Black at 84.3%. The next largest groups are White (7.4%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Darlington most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Darlington in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.3% (263 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 Darlington in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Darlington a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Darlington 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 Darlington still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Darlington 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 Darlington 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 common is the name Darlington?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.