How common is the surname Darling?

18,879 people in the United States had the surname Darling in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 16,354 Americans. It ranked 1,904th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Darling?

David Darling, American musician, followed by Chuck Darling.

Where is the surname Darling most common?

Wikidata records people named Darling in the United States, The Bahamas and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and 1 other country.

How do you pronounce Darling?

Darling is /ˈdɑːlɪŋ/, 2 syllables.

Is the surname Darling getting more or less common?

More common. 17,855 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,879 in 2010, up 5.7%.

The surname Darling

A nickname surname, carried by 18,879 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈdɑːlɪŋ/ 2 syllables Soundex D645

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Darling is more common than 98.8% of them.

Origin

From darling.

Darling is a nickname surname: from a description or nickname of an ancestor.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 18,879 people named Darling in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 16,354 Americans. That is up 5.7% since 2000, when the Census counted 17,855.

#1,904

rank among US surnames

18,879

people in 2010

6.4

per 100,000 Americans

+5.7%

change since 2000 (was #1,849)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,895	Roche	18,940	16,301
#1,896	Tobin	18,932	16,308
#1,897	Zaragoza	18,908	16,329
#1,898	Isaac	18,903	16,333
#1,899	Spaulding	18,902	16,334
#1,900	Keys	18,899	16,337
#1,901	Sylvester	18,896	16,339

Who is named Darling

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

87% of people named Darling identified as white (not Hispanic), 7.2% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 87%
Black (not Hispanic) 7.2%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.4%
Two or more races 1.9%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.7%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Darlings

18 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

David Darling
American musician, 1941–2021
Chuck Darling
American basketball player (1930–2021)
Gia Darling
American pornographic film actress, pornographic film director, and businesswoman, born 1977
Clifford Darling
Bahamian politician (1922-2011)
Jean Darling
American actress (1922–2015)
Ela Darling
American pornographic actress and entrepreneur, born 1986
Tom Darling
American rower, born 1958
Ralph Darling
British Army general (1772-1858)
Jennifer Darling
American actress (1946-2026)
Scott Darling
American ice hockey player (born 1988)
Samuel Taylor Darling
American scientist (1872-1925)
Dennis Darling
Bahamian athletics competitor (born 1975)

Notable Darlings come mostly from the United States (13), The Bahamas (2) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (2).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Darling

Darling has the Soundex code D645, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code D645.

Questions

Where does the surname Darling come from?: From darling.
How common is the surname Darling?: 18,879 people in the United States had the surname Darling in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 16,354 Americans. It ranked 1,904th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Darling?: In the 2010 Census, 87% of people named Darling identified as white (not Hispanic), and 7.2% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Darling?: David Darling, American musician, followed by Chuck Darling.
Where is the surname Darling most common?: Wikidata records people named Darling in the United States, The Bahamas and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and 1 other country.
How do you pronounce Darling?: Darling is /ˈdɑːlɪŋ/, 2 syllables.
What type of surname is Darling?: Darling is a nickname surname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor.
Is the surname Darling getting more or less common?: More common. 17,855 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,879 in 2010, up 5.7%.