Dalilah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "delicate", "tender", or "languishing".
Name Census estimates that about 4,879 living Americans carry the first name Dalilah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dalilah today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dalilah births was 2008 (263 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dalilah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Dalilah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Dalilah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.9K
~ 1 in 70,251 Americans
Peak year
2008
263 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,049
Tracked since 1970
Census
Dalilah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,889 people with the first name Dalilah, which placed it at #5,768 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,768
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,889 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
65.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dalilah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dalilah is Hispanic at 65.0%. The next largest groups are White (20.2%) and Black (9.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dalilah described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dalilah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino65.0% · 1,877
- White20.2% · 585
- Black or African American9.3% · 268
- Two or more races4.0% · 117
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 19
Popularity
Dalilah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dalilah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,231 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Dalilah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dalilah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dalilah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dalilahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Dalilah, while Utah, Oklahoma, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 131 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dalilah
Dalilah is a feminine given name derived from the Hebrew name Delilah, which means "delicate" or "languishing". Its roots can be traced back to ancient Philistine culture, where it first appeared in the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, recorded in the Book of Judges.
The name Delilah gained prominence in the Old Testament narrative as the seductive and cunning woman who betrayed Samson, the Israelite warrior, by cutting his hair and thereby robbing him of his superhuman strength. This biblical tale has been a source of inspiration for numerous artistic works throughout history, further popularizing the name.
In the 17th century, the English poet John Milton featured Dalilah as a character in his epic poem "Samson Agonistes". This literary work contributed to the name's enduring legacy and its association with themes of temptation and betrayal.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dalilah dates back to the 12th century, when it was borne by a Sephardic Jewish woman named Dalilah ben Levi, who lived in Spain. Another notable figure from history was Dalilah al-Muʿayyad, an Egyptian princess and wife of the Ayyubid Sultan Saladin, who reigned in the 12th century.
In the realm of music, Dalilah has been immortalized in the famous aria "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" from the 1832 opera "Samson et Dalila" by Camille Saint-Saëns. This operatic work further cemented the name's association with the biblical narrative.
Other historical figures bearing the name Dalilah include:
1. Dalilah Lavi (1942-2017), an Israeli actress and singer known for her roles in European films in the 1960s.
2. Dalilah Muhammad (born 1990), an American track and field athlete who specializes in the hammer throw and won a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
3. Dalilah Polanco (born 1981), a Dominican-American actress best known for her role in the TV series "The Sinner".
4. Dalilah Sapanden (born 1956), a Malaysian singer and actress who has been active in the entertainment industry since the 1970s.
5. Dalilah Ghazi (born 1983), a Moroccan singer and songwriter who has gained popularity in the Arabic music scene.
People
Dalilah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dalilah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dalilah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dalilah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,879 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dalilah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 70,251 US residents.
Is Dalilah a common name?
We classify Dalilah as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,935 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dalilah most popular?
The single biggest year for Dalilah was 2008, when 263 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dalilah is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dalilah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,889 people with the name Dalilah, or 0.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,768 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dalilah in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dalilah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dalilah appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,892 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dalilah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dalilah is Hispanic at 65.0%. The next largest groups are White (20.2%) and Black (9.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dalilah most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Dalilah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.0% (1,877 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dalilah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dalilah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dalilah in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Dalilah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dalilah in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dalilah can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Dalilah as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Dalilah, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.