About Darla
Darla is an English name built from the affectionate word darling. It developed as a variant of Darlene and became particularly familiar in the United States during the middle of the twentieth century. Child performer Darla Hood and animation producer Darla K. Anderson connect it with two quite different eras of filmmaking.
Meaning and origin
Darlene was created from darling with the name ending -lene and has been used since the beginning of the twentieth century. Darla reshapes that name with the shorter ending -la.
“Darling” or “beloved” expresses the central meaning. The name's background is the language of affection, and its form reflects the creation of new English names from familiar words.
Darlene is its closest relation, with Darleen another spelling in the same family. Darla has its own pronunciation and popularity history rather than functioning only as an occasional nickname.
Pronunciation
Darla is DAR-luh, with two syllables and stress on the first. In American English, the first syllable rhymes with “car.” Many British accents do not pronounce the r before the following consonant.
Its final syllable has an unstressed vowel, while Darlene ends with a stressed “leen.” That change in rhythm is one of the clearest spoken differences between the two related names.
Darla Hood
Darla Hood became a child star in the Our Gang comedies. Born in Leedey, Oklahoma, she took singing and dancing lessons before a talent scout discovered her in New York.
She signed with the studio in 1935 and appeared in Our Gang Follies of 1936. Her screen career made Darla a recognizable name in comedy well before its strongest years in American birth records.
Hood later continued performing as a singer and used her voice in television commercials and dubbing work. Her career therefore extended beyond the childhood screen appearances for which she is chiefly remembered.
Darla K. Anderson
Producer Darla K. Anderson joined Pixar in 1993. Her feature-film credits include A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Cars, Toy Story 3, and Coco.
She won the Academy Award for animated feature for Coco at the 2018 ceremony. Her work on Toy Story 3 also brought a Best Picture nomination. The Producers Guild of America honored her producing work on Coco, Cars, and Toy Story 3.
Anderson's producing work places the name behind animated films as well as in front of the camera in Hood's earlier comedies.
American popularity
Darla rose from 567 girls in 1950 to its national peak in 1963, when 2,391 births placed it at number 165.
Its use declined afterward, with 315 girls in 1980 and 97 in 2000. More recently, the count increased again: 275 girls received the name in 2025, ranking 941. That modest return follows a much larger mid-century high point.
Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution
Meaning and history draw on the references below. Popularity figures use Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling and sex; counts below five are omitted. Existing Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA. Suggested informal shortenings are identified in the prose.
- Wiktionary: Darla (English)
- Social Security Administration: national name data
- Wikidata: Darla K. Anderson
- Wikidata: Darla Hood
- Oklahoma Historical Society: Darla Hood
- Netflix: producer Darla Anderson
Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
How popular is Darla?
In 2025, Darla ranked #941 among girls in the United States, with 275 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1924; its largest annual count was 2,391 in 1963. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.