Darko

Boys' name

Gift, through Darko

Darko has been given to 67 babies in the U.S. since 1987. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2017, with 11 recorded.

Babies named Darko, 2024

1 in 669,000

Darko over time, 1880–2025

Boys

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Darko: meaning, origin, and history

Gift, through Darko

Slavic languages

What Darko means

Darko belongs to the name family reached through Darko → Darko. Its meaning is “gift”.

Origin, language, and formation

Darko is used in English, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene. Its origins include Slavic languages.

Darko comes through Serbo-Croatian Darko.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Darko.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Serbo-Croatian, Darko is pronounced /dǎːrko/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 67 boys were recorded with the name Darko between 1987 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 11 in 2017; its best national rank was #7,179 in 1987.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Darko?

Darko had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024: 1 in 669,000; 5 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only: 1 in 345,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 463,412 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Darko sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2024 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Darko. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Darkos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Darko was born before 2017 — so the typical Darko is around 8 today.

Median birth year: 2017; About 8 years old
Biggest decade: 2020s; 49.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 92.5%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 67; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

2020s — 49.3% of all recorded uses (33).

Is Darko rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 2017 (11)
Years since peak: 8; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 41.9% average annual change
Best rank ever: #7,179; 1987

Spellings of Darko

Darko is not the most common spelling — Mark is, with 74.8% against Darko's <0.01%.

Mark74.8%1,362,176
Mario8.3%151,310
Marco4.2%76,578
Daryl3.5%63,058
Darin1.8%32,546
Arlo1.3%24,245
Carlo0.87%15,920
Dario0.66%11,945

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Darko around the world

Where Darko ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

France
1964–2024
#3,396
in 2024
Canada
2002–2002
#2,079
in 2002
South Australia
1954–2007
#437
in 2007

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Darko by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #7,179; 1987
Peak year: 2017; 11 that year
First recorded: 1987
Last recorded: 2024
All-time count: 67
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Darko

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Dareck Darlin Dardan Daray Darle Darus Darly Daryk Darinel Daril Darkiel Darivs Darden Dare Darth Darias Darril Dariell Darrio Darla Darean Darvon Darlens Darr

Sibling names for Darko

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Raylee Aubrielle Harleigh Kinslee Aminah Spencer Adelia Emmeline

For a brother

Brecken Linus Arvin Titan Ramsey Kalvin Ishmael Nixon

Explore around Darko

Top names of 2017, Darko's peak year The 2010s in full Other names that peaked in 1987 Boys' names starting with D Croatian & Serbian Boy Names