Meaning and history
Darius is the Latin form of Greek Dareios, from Old Persian Darayauš, a shortened form of Darayavauš meaning "possessing goodness." Three Persian kings bore it, including Darius the Great, who brought the Achaemenid Empire to its greatest extent before his invasion of Greece was defeated at Marathon. Rare in English until rising after the mid-20th century, it is often African-American in the United States; in Lithuania it may honor aviator Steponas Darius (1896–1933), whose Americanized surname came from Darašius and who died attempting a nonstop New York-to-Lithuania flight.
20062006: 1,244 births, rank #278
2007: 1,090 births, rank #306
2008: 1,052 births, rank #318
2009: 956 births, rank #333
2010: 929 births, rank #337
20112011: 766 births, rank #380
2012: 730 births, rank #399
2013: 718 births, rank #410
2014: 614 births, rank #473
2015: 579 births, rank #501
20162016: 584 births, rank #511
2017: 584 births, rank #495
2018: 553 births, rank #510
2019: 491 births, rank #567
2020: 469 births, rank #592
20212021: 434 births, rank #636
2022: 402 births, rank #679
2023: 367 births, rank #723
2024: 344 births, rank #746
20252025: 322 births, rank #788
Darius moved from #746 to #788 for boys between 2024 and 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 1994, with 2,184 births.