Delane
A gender-neutral French name meaning "from the valley".
Name Census estimates that about 1,296 living Americans carry the first name Delane. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 50.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Delane today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Delane births was 1957 (49 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Delane. 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.
Key insights
- • Delane sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 264,471 Americans
Peak year
1957
49 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2010 SSA rank
#12,452
Tracked since 1917
Census
Delane in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,444 people with the first name Delane, which placed it at #9,567 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
#9,567
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,444 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Delane
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delane is White at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Black (17.0%) and Hispanic (4.2%). 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 Delane 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 Delane at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.5% · 1,032
- Black or African American17.0% · 246
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 61
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.7% · 54
- Two or more races2.8% · 40
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Delane
Delane is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,878 total registrations, 923 (49.1%) were male and 955 (50.9%) were female.
Delane as a male name
- Ranked #12,713 in 2010
- 5 male births in 2010
- Peak: 1949 (23 births)
Delane as a female name
- Ranked #12,452 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1954 (29 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Delane on both sides of the split. Of the 1,444 people counted with this name, 625 were male (43.3%) and 819 were female (56.7%).
Popularity
Delane: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Delane from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 407 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Delane 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 Delane during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Delanes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Alabama, Nebraska, Texas recorded the most babies named Delane, while Washington, Texas, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Delane
The given name Delane is a variant spelling of the French name Delaine, which is derived from the Old French word "de l'aine" meaning "of the woolen cloth". This name likely originated in medieval France, where the textile industry was an important part of the economy and culture.
Delane may have initially referred to someone who worked with woolen cloth, such as a weaver or a merchant. The name could have been an occupational surname that later transitioned into a given name. The earliest recorded instances of the name Delane are found in French historical records from the 13th and 14th centuries.
One notable historical figure with the name Delane was John Thadeus Delane, an English journalist and editor who lived from 1817 to 1879. He was the editor of The Times newspaper in London for over three decades and played a significant role in shaping the newspaper's influential voice during the Victorian era.
Another individual with the name Delane was Sir Henry Delane, an American-born British military officer who lived from 1852 to 1915. He served in the British Army and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his service during the Second Boer War in South Africa.
In the realm of literature, Delane was the first name of Delane Osborne, an American author and poet who lived from 1898 to 1971. She published several collections of poetry and was known for her works exploring themes of nature and spirituality.
Delane was also the first name of Delane Matthews, an American jazz musician who lived from 1928 to 1998. He was a saxophonist and played with various jazz ensembles throughout his career, contributing to the development of the West Coast jazz scene.
Another historical figure with the name Delane was Delane Fitzgerald, an American artist and sculptor who lived from 1913 to 2005. She was known for her abstract and modernist sculptures, many of which are on display in museums and public spaces across the United States.
People
Delane + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Delane 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
Delane: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Delane?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,296 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Delane 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 264,471 US residents.
Is Delane a common name?
We classify Delane as "Rare". It ranks above 91.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,878 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Delane most popular?
The single biggest year for Delane was 1957, when 49 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Delane is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Delane in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,444 people with the name Delane, or 0.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,567 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 Delane 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 Delane?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Delane on both sides of the split. Of the 1,444 people counted with this name, 625 were male (43.3%) and 819 were female (56.7%). 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 Delane?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delane is White at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Black (17.0%) and Hispanic (4.2%). 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 Delane most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Delane in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.5% (1,032 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 Delane in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Delane a female name?
Yes, 50.9% of people registered as Delane 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 Delane still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Delane 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 Delane 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 are named Delane?
Want to know how many Americans are named Delane? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.