Dario
Meaning
possessing goodness (Italian form of Darius)
The story
Dario is the Italian form of Darius, and the chain behind it is imperial from end to end. Behind the Name walks it back through Latin and Greek to the Old Persian name Darayaus, meaning possessing goodness, from daraya, to possess or hold, and vau, good. Three ancient kings of Persia carried the original, including Darius the Great, whose forces crossed into Greece and were turned back at Marathon. Italy still gives the name its own feast day, December 19. The American record picks Dario up in the 1900s and then climbs without a break for five straight decades, from the 1970s through the 2010s: 697 boys, then 1,234, then 1,607, then 2,177, then 2,289. The 2020s already stand at 2,263, within thirty of that full previous decade with years still to run. The Spanish and Portuguese pages of this site write it Darío and Dário. Brazil's census counts 26,435 bearers, median age 47.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Dario peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
Popularity in Brazil
26,435 people · the #892 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 7,692 · median age 47
Among people named Dario living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 394 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Dario
Most people given the name Dario in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Dario deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Dario truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Dario fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Does Dario fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Dario to your family’s tree →