Delilah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "delicate" or "languishing".
Roughly 58,656 people in the United States go by the first name Delilah, which ranks #50 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Delilah today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Delilah births was 2024 (4,240 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Wade (58,641).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Delilah. 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 Delilah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Delilah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
59K
~ 1 in 5,843 Americans
Peak year
2024
4,240 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#50
Tracked since 1880
Census
Delilah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 33,701 people with the first name Delilah, which placed it at #1,171 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
#1,171
National first-name rank
People counted
34K
33,701 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
11.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
42.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Delilah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delilah is Hispanic at 42.8%. The next largest groups are White (41.9%) and Black (7.2%). 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 Delilah 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 Delilah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino42.8% · 14,434
- White41.9% · 14,137
- Black or African American7.2% · 2,428
- Two or more races4.7% · 1,593
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 611
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 498
Popularity
Delilah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Delilah from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 25,007 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Delilah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Delilah 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 Delilah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Delilahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Delilah, while Vermont, District of Columbia, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,121 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Delilah
The name Delilah has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew word "dalal" which means "to languish" or "to be delicate". The name first appeared in the Old Testament of the Bible, where it was the name of the Philistine woman who betrayed Samson, seducing him and cutting off his hair, which was the source of his strength.
While the biblical Delilah is portrayed as a seductress and traitor, the name itself carries a softer, more delicate meaning. Over time, it has come to be associated with beauty, grace, and femininity. The earliest recorded use of the name outside of the Bible dates back to the 13th century in England.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Delilah was an English woman named Delilah Gibbs, who lived in the late 16th century. In the 17th century, Delilah Wray was a prominent Quaker writer and activist in England.
In the 18th century, Delilah Wallington was a notable English diarist and writer. Her diary, which chronicled her life in the early 1700s, is an important historical document and provides insight into the lives of women during that time period.
In the 19th century, Delilah Bates was a famous American contralto opera singer who performed in Europe and the United States. She was known for her powerful voice and dramatic stage presence.
In the 20th century, Delilah Leontium Bouri was a Greek-American artist and sculptor who was active in the early part of the century. She was known for her avant-garde style and her use of unconventional materials in her sculptures.
Overall, the name Delilah has a rich history that spans centuries and cultures. While it has its roots in the Hebrew language and the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, it has evolved to take on a more positive and feminine connotation over time.
People
Delilah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Delilah 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
Delilah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Delilah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 58,656 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Delilah 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 5,843 US residents.
Is Delilah a common name?
We classify Delilah as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 62,507 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Delilah most popular?
The single biggest year for Delilah was 2024, when 4,240 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Delilah is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Delilah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 33,701 people with the name Delilah, or 11.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,171 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 Delilah 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 Delilah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Delilah appears almost entirely female. Of the 33,704 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Delilah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delilah is Hispanic at 42.8%. The next largest groups are White (41.9%) and Black (7.2%). 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 Delilah most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Delilah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.8% (14,434 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 Delilah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Delilah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Delilah 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 Delilah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Delilah 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 Delilah 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 common is the name Delilah?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Delilah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.