Darrell comes from a Norman French surname, d'Airelle, which simply meant "from Airelle", a village in Normandy, and was carried to England after 1066. It became a popular American first name in the middle of the 20th century. Darrell ranked number 470 in 2000, left the top 1000 in the late 2010s and continues to decline, standing at number 1691 in 2025.