How popular is the baby name Darrin in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Darrin.

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Popularity of the baby name Darrin


Posts that mention the name Darrin

Where did the baby name Daren come from in 1922?

The book "The Day of the Beast" (1922) by Zane Grey.
“The Day of the Beast”

We already know that a character from the TV show Bewitched popularized the baby name Darrin (and similar names like Darren, Daren, and Darin) in the 1960s.

But that wasn’t the first time one of these names was influenced by pop culture.

The first of the group to appear in the SSA’s baby name data was Daren, which was the top debut name of 1922:

  • 1924: unlisted
  • 1923: 14 baby boys named Daren
  • 1922: 35 baby boys named Daren [debut]
  • 1921: unlisted
  • 1920: unlisted

Here’s the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) data for same the time period, for a different perspective:

  • 1924: 5 people named Daren
  • 1923: 12 people named Daren
  • 1922: 30 people named Daren
  • 1921: 2 people named Daren
  • 1920: 1 person named Daren

What caused that spike in the usage?

A book called The Day of the Beast (1922) by writer Zane Grey.

Although Grey was well-known for his Westerns, this one wasn’t a Western. Instead it was a morality-heavy drama about a wounded World War I veteran named Daren Lane* who, upon returning to his hometown, began crusading against the declining morals of 1920s America.

The modern reviews I’ve read have been mixed or negative, and even contemporary reviewers did not seem impressed. One writer from the 1920s noted that the book was “mighty good reading as a denunciation, but not so much as a novel.”

So The Day of the Beast wasn’t a high point in Grey’s career, but it made enough of an impression upon readers to influence American baby names.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Daren? Which spelling do you prefer?

*Several of the 1920s babies named Daren — like Daren Lane Biggers, and Daren Lane Cantrall — did indeed get “Lane” as a middle name.

Source: “Book Reviews and Literary Notes.” Oakland Tribune 12 Nov. 1922: 42.

How did “Bewitched” influence baby names in the 1960s?

bewitched, baby names, 1960s

Bewitched, the sitcom about a witch who marries a mere mortal, premiered on ABC in September of 1964 and ran all the way until 1972. Like many popular TV shows, it had a noticeable influence on U.S. baby names. For instance…

Samantha

The name Samantha, which had ranked far outside the top 1,000 for most of the 20th century, skyrocketed in popularity in the mid-1960s thanks to main character (and witch!) Samantha Stephens, played by Elizabeth Montgomery.

  • 1968: 2,339 baby girls named Samantha [rank: 136th]
  • 1967: 1,806 baby girls named Samantha [rank: 176th]
  • 1966: 1,794 baby girls named Samantha [rank: 182nd]
  • 1965: 1,963 baby girls named Samantha [rank: 179th]
  • 1964: 421 baby girls named Samantha [rank: 473rd]
  • 1963: 73 baby girls named Samantha

The name reached and maintained top-5 status during most of the 1990s (with a lot of help from another fictional Samantha: Samantha Micelli from ’80s sitcom Who’s the Boss?).

Montgomery also played the part of Samantha’s cousin Serena, who was a recurring character during later seasons of the show. The name Serena saw higher usage in the late ’60s and early ’70s as a result.

Darrin

The name Darrin was boosted up to its highest-ever usage in 1965 thanks to Samantha’s husband Darrin Stephens, originally played by Dick York.

  • 1968: 2,078 baby boys named Darrin [rank: 138th]
  • 1967: 2,029 baby boys named Darrin [rank: 141st]
  • 1966: 2,568 baby boys named Darrin [rank: 119th]
  • 1965: 3,257 baby boys named Darrin [rank: 102nd] – peak usage
  • 1964: 801 baby boys named Darrin [rank: 272nd]
  • 1963: 310 baby boys named Darrin [rank: 450th]

In fact, all the spelling variants of Darrin saw peak usage in 1965. The most common spelling of the name, Darren, reached 52nd place in the rankings that year. Also in the top 1,000 were Darin (123th), Daren (271st), Darron (408th), Daron (494th) Daryn (717th), and Darryn (818th).

Endora

The rare name Endora debuted in 1965, thanks to Samantha’s flamboyant and moderately villainous witch-mother Endora, played by Agnes Moorehead (who, several years earlier, played another TV witch).

  • 1968: 7 baby girls named Endora
  • 1967: 17 baby girls named Endora
  • 1966: 19 baby girls named Endora
  • 1965: 28 baby girls named Endora [debut]
  • 1964: unlisted
  • 1963: unlisted

Endora was so dismissive of Darrin that she nearly never bothered to say his name correctly, calling him things like Derwood, Dagwood, Darwick, Dumpkin, and so forth.

Endora’s own name was inspired by the biblical Witch of Endor; “Endor” was an ancient Canaanite city.

Tabatha & Tabitha

The names Tabatha and Tabitha were both featured on Bewitched, confusingly.

Samantha and Darrin’s first child was a baby girl born in January of 1966. They named her Tabitha, a name first strongly suggested in the storyline by Endora (“Whatever you call her, I shall call her Tabitha”).

Behind the scenes, it was Elizabeth Montgomery who suggested the character name Tabitha — spelled the traditional way, with an i.

But, for some unknown reason, the name was spelled Tabatha — with an a — on the credit role. Montgomery was later quoted as saying: “Honestly, I shudder every time I see it. It’s like a squeaky piece of chalk scratching on my nerves.” The spelling wasn’t corrected until season 5 (1968-1969).

Accordingly, the usage of both baby names rose during the ’60s, with Tabatha ranking higher than Tabitha for a three-year stretch before the spelling mistake in the credits was corrected:

Girls named TabithaGirls named Tabatha
1971947 [rank: 295th]543 [rank: 398th]
19701,050 [rank: 279th]585 [rank: 401st]
1969944 [rank: 297th]658 [rank: 355th]
1968549 [rank: 391st]701 [rank: 328th]
1967444 [rank: 451st]581 [rank: 378th]
1966327 [rank: 524th]500 [rank: 419th]
1965345 [debut]
196422unlisted
196321unlisted

Adam

The name Adam more than doubled in usage over a two-year stretch thanks to Samantha and Darrin’s second child, Adam, who was born in October of 1969.

  • 1972: 5,748 baby boys named Adam [rank: 51st]
  • 1971: 5,855 baby boys named Adam [rank: 57th]
  • 1970: 4,320 baby boys named Adam [rank: 71st]
  • 1969: 2,869 baby boys named Adam [rank: 113th]
  • 1968: 2,546 baby boys named Adam [rank: 119th]
  • 1967: 2,528 baby boys named Adam [rank: 118th]

The name reached and maintained top-20 status for several years during the early 1980s.

…So are you a fan of Bewitched? Which names from the show do you like the best?

Sources:

The trio in Rio: Leila, Liina, Lily

Leila and Liina Luik running at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Leila Luik (with Liina behind)

Next Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, 30-year-old identical (and alliterative) triplets Leila, Liina, and Lily Luik of Estonia are expected to run the women’s marathon. This will make the “Trio in Rio,” as they call themselves, the first set of triplets to compete in an Olympics.

In comparison, about 200 sets of twins have competed in the Olympics over the years. Here are some of the Olympic twins with similarly alliterative names:

  • Åke & Arne (Sweden) – not technically alliterative; see JJ’s comment
  • Catarina & Christina (Sweden)
  • Darius & Donatas (Lithuania)
  • Darrin & Dan (USA)
  • Dennis & Duane (USA)
  • Dionísio & Domingos (Portugal)
  • Jean-Jacques & Jean-Marc (France)
  • Jodie & Julie (Canada)
  • Jules & Julian (Belgium)
  • Katalin & Krisztina (Hungary)
  • Katrine & Kristine (Norway)
  • Lívia & Lucia (Slovakia)
  • Madeline & Margaret (Puerto Rico)
  • Marianne & Mildred (Netherlands)
  • Sandy & Sonia (Zimbabwe)
  • Malcolm “Mal” & Melville “Mel” (Jamaica)
  • Mark & Michael (Canada)
  • Maureen & Melanie (Netherlands)
  • McJoe & McWilliams (Puerto Rico)
  • Mikuláš & Miloslav (Slovakia)
  • Pascal & Patrick (France)
  • Paula & Peta (Bermuda)
  • Paulo Miguel & Pedro Miguel (Portugal)
  • Pavol & Peter (Slovakia)
  • Randolph & Robert (USA)
  • Rhoda & Rhona (Canada)
  • Ricardo & Rodrigo (Chile)
  • Sharon & Shirley (Canada)
  • Stanley & Sydney (Great Britain)
  • Tami & Toni (USA)
  • Terry & Tom (USA)
  • Valeriy & Volodymyr (Ukraine)
  • Valj & Vita (Ukraine)
  • Veronika & Viktoriya (Belarus)
  • Vida & Vidette (South Africa)
  • Zlatko & Zoran (Yugoslavia)

You can see a full list of Olympic twins in the OlympStats post Twins at the Olympics.

Have you been tuning in to the Olympics? If so, have you spotted any interesting names so far?

Source: “Racing in Triplicate.” Tampa Bay Times 30 Jun. 2016.
Image: Leila Luik Rio 2016 by Citizen59 under CC BY 3.0.

Interesting baby name analysis

I only recently noticed that Behind the Name, one of my favorite websites for baby name definitions, has a page called United States Popularity Analysis — a “computer-created analysis of the United States top 1000 names for the period 1880 to 2012.”

The page has some interesting top ten lists. Here are three of them:

Most Volatile

Boy NamesGirl Names
1. Elvis
2. Brooks
3. Santiago
4. Lincoln
5. Ernie
6. Wyatt
7. Quincy
8. Rogers
9. Alec
10. Dexter
1. Juliet
2. Lea
3. Justine
4. Martina
5. Felicia
6. Delilah
7. Selina
8. Lonnie
9. Magdalena
10. Katy

Biggest Recoveries

Boy NamesGirl Names
1. Silas
2. Isaiah
3. Caleb
4. Emmett
5. Jordan
6. Josiah
7. Harrison
8. Ezra
9. Jason
10. Jesus
1. Ella
2. Stella
3. Sadie
4. Sophie
5. Isabella
6. Lily
7. Hannah
8. Isabelle
9. Sophia
10. Lilly

Biggest Flash-in-the-Pans

Boy NamesGirl Names
1. Dewey
2. Woodrow
3. Dale
4. Barry
5. Rick
6. Greg
7. Roosevelt
8. Shannon
9. Kim
10. Darrin
1. Debra
2. Lori
3. Tammy
4. Pamela
5. Tracy
6. Cheryl
7. Beverly
8. Dawn
9. Diane
10. Kathy

I wonder what the formulas were. I’d love to try the same analysis on the SSA’s full list, using raw numbers instead of rankings. Wonder how much overlap there’d be…