Darrelle
Short for Dorothea, meaning "gift of God" in Greek origins.
Name Census estimates that about 296 living Americans carry the first name Darrelle. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 79.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Darrelle today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Darrelle births was 1989 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Darrelle. 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
1989
24 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2020 SSA rank
#10,845
Tracked since 1957
Gender
Gender distribution for Darrelle
Darrelle is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 313 total registrations, 249 (79.6%) were male and 64 (20.4%) were female.
Darrelle as a male name
- Ranked #10,904 in 2020
- 6 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1989 (18 births)
Darrelle as a female name
- Ranked #10,845 in 1996
- 7 female births in 1996
- Peak: 1992 (7 births)
Popularity
Darrelle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Darrelle from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 79 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Darrelle 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 Darrelle 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 Darrelle
The given name Darrelle is a relatively modern invention, with no clear linguistic roots or cultural origins from the past. It appears to be a creative spelling variation of the more common name Darrell, which itself is an anglicized form of the French name Derrell or Daryll.
While Darrell can be traced back to the Old French name Dreu or Dreux, meaning "streamer" or "pennant", the unique spelling Darrelle does not seem to have any historical precedence or known meaning. It is likely a recent coinage, possibly inspired by the popularity of unique spellings for names in the 20th century.
There are no known references to the name Darrelle in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or historical records from earlier eras. The earliest recorded examples of this particular spelling appear to be from the late 20th century, with no significant historical figures or notable individuals bearing this name prior to modern times.
Among the few individuals who have been recorded with the first name Darrelle, one of the most prominent is Darrelle Revis, an American former professional football player who was born in 1985 and played cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) from 2007 to 2017. He was a four-time All-Pro selection and won a Super Bowl championship with the New England Patriots in 2014.
Another notable Darrelle is Darrelle London, an American former professional basketball player who was born in 1988 and played in the NBA G League and several international leagues during the 2010s.
Darrelle Custis is an American businesswoman and entrepreneur who founded the successful hair care product line Custis Hair Products in the early 2000s.
Darrelle Smith is a Canadian track and field athlete who specialized in sprinting events and competed in the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics.
Darrelle Wilson is an American author and historian who has written several books on African American history and culture, including the acclaimed work "The Interpreter's Voice: African American Literary Criticism in the Twentieth Century" published in 2000.
Overall, while the name Darrelle is a relatively uncommon and modern variant, it appears to be a creative spelling variation of the more established name Darrell, with no significant historical or cultural roots beyond the late 20th century.
People
Darrelle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Darrelle 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
Darrelle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Darrelle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 296 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Darrelle 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 Darrelle a common name?
We classify Darrelle 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, 313 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Darrelle most popular?
The single biggest year for Darrelle was 1989, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Darrelle is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Darrelle a male name?
Yes, 79.6% of people registered as Darrelle 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.
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.