Delphin
A masculine name with Greek origins meaning "dolphin".
Name Census estimates that about 7 living Americans carry the first name Delphin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Delphin today is around 97 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Delphin births was 1907 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Delphin. 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
- • The typical person named Delphin is about 97 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Delphins were born before 1939.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Delphin. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
7
~ 1 in 48,964,905 Americans
Peak year
1907
13 babies that year
Average age
97
years old
1935 SSA rank
#3,024
Tracked since 1907
Census
Delphin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 183 people with the first name Delphin, which placed it at #40,598 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
#40,598
National first-name rank
People counted
183
183 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
44.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Delphin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delphin is Black at 44.8%. The next largest groups are White (30.6%) and Hispanic (12.6%). 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 Delphin 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 Delphin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American44.8% · 82
- White30.6% · 56
- Hispanic or Latino12.6% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.7% · 16
- Two or more races3.3% · 6
Popularity
Delphin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Delphin from the 1900s through to the 1930s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 62 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Delphin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Delphin 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 Delphin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Delphin
The name Delphin has its origins in the Greek language and culture. It is derived from the Greek word "delphis" meaning dolphin, the marine mammal. The name likely emerged in ancient Greece during the classical period when dolphins were revered as sacred creatures.
In Greek mythology, dolphins were associated with the sea god Poseidon and were believed to be friendly guides for sailors and shipwrecked individuals. The use of the name Delphin may have been inspired by this symbolism, representing qualities such as intelligence, protection, and guidance.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Delphin can be found in ancient Roman texts. A Roman grammarian and scholar named Delphin lived in the 2nd century AD and wrote commentaries on various classical works, including those of Horace and Terence.
During the Middle Ages, the name Delphin was occasionally used in monastic circles, possibly as a reference to the dolphin's association with spirituality and protection. One notable bearer of the name was Delphin of Bordeaux, a 7th-century bishop and saint in the Catholic Church.
In the Renaissance period, the name Delphin gained popularity among humanist scholars and intellectuals who studied classical Greek and Roman texts. A notable figure was Aelius Donatus, a Roman grammarian and teacher in the 4th century AD who was known as "the Dolphin" due to his exceptional knowledge and teaching abilities.
Another prominent individual with the name Delphin was Delphin Strungk, a German composer and organist who lived from 1601 to 1694. He was renowned for his contributions to the development of Protestant church music during the Baroque period.
In the 19th century, the French novelist and playwright Alphonse Daudet used the name Delphin for one of the characters in his work "The Nabob," published in 1877. This literary reference may have helped to revive interest in the name during that era.
While the name Delphin is not as common today as it once was, it continues to be used occasionally, particularly in regions with historical ties to Greek and Roman culture or in literary and scholarly circles as a nod to its classical roots.
People
Delphin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Delphin 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
Delphin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Delphin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Delphin 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 48,964,905 US residents.
Is Delphin a common name?
We classify Delphin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 23.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 116 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Delphin most popular?
The single biggest year for Delphin was 1907, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Delphin is about 97 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Delphin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 183 people with the name Delphin, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,598 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 Delphin 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 Delphin?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Delphin on both sides of the split. Of the 187 people counted with this name, 144 were male (77.0%) and 43 were female (23.0%). 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 Delphin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delphin is Black at 44.8%. The next largest groups are White (30.6%) and Hispanic (12.6%). 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 Delphin most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Delphin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.8% (82 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 Delphin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Delphin a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Delphin in the SSA data are male. 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 Delphin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Delphin 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 Delphin 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 Delphin as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.