Delta
Derived from the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, a feminine name symbolizing change.
Name Census estimates that about 2,372 living Americans carry the first name Delta. It is a predominantly female name (97.5% of registrations). The average person named Delta today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Delta births was 2019 (136 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Delta. 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 Delta with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Delta is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 108 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 144,500 Americans
Peak year
2019
136 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2023 SSA rank
#2,266
Tracked since 1883
Census
Delta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,478 people with the first name Delta, which placed it at #6,472 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
#6,472
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,478 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Delta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delta is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Black (14.6%) and Hispanic (12.2%). 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 Delta 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 Delta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.2% · 1,592
- Black or African American14.6% · 361
- Hispanic or Latino12.2% · 303
- Two or more races4.4% · 110
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 77
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 35
Gender
Gender distribution for Delta
Delta leans heavily female at 97.5% of total registrations, but 108 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Delta as a male name
- Ranked #12,650 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1955 (8 births)
Delta as a female name
- Ranked #2,266 in 2024
- 82 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (136 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Delta leans strongly female. 2,308 people counted with this name were female (93.0%), compared with 175 male bearers (7.0%).
Popularity
Delta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Delta from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 505 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Delta 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 Delta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Deltas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Delta, while Washington, Minnesota, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 33 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Delta
The name Delta is derived from the Greek letter of the same name, which is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. The word "delta" itself comes from the Phoenician letter "dalt," which was used to represent the "d" sound. In ancient Greek, the letter delta represented the "d" sound as well.
The name Delta likely originated as a reference to the triangular shape of the Nile River delta in Egypt, which was a significant geographical feature in ancient times. The delta of a river is the area where it spreads out into multiple branches before reaching the sea or another body of water. The triangular shape of the Nile delta resembles the Greek letter delta, hence the name.
While the name Delta is not commonly found in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been used as a name throughout history, often as a nod to the geographical feature or as a reference to the Greek letter itself.
One of the earliest recorded instances of Delta as a given name is Delta Phi Upsilon, a women's fraternity founded at Calcutta University in India in 1909. The organization chose the name Delta as a reference to the Greek letter's symbolic meaning of "door to the light of knowledge."
Notable individuals with the first name Delta include:
1. Delta Enduring Fey (1952-2016), an American poet and performance artist.
2. Delta Haynie (1873-1951), an American actress and vaudeville performer.
3. Delta Hudson (1909-1986), an American jazz singer and actress.
4. Delta Hunt (1868-1922), an American author and educator.
5. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., an African American sorority founded in 1913 at Howard University.
While the name Delta is not as common as some other names, it has a rich history rooted in ancient Greek language and geography, and has been used as a given name throughout various periods in history, often with a nod to its symbolic meaning or as a reference to the Greek letter itself.
People
Delta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Delta 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
Delta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Delta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,372 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Delta 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 144,500 US residents.
Is Delta a common name?
We classify Delta as "Rare". It ranks above 94.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,397 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Delta most popular?
The single biggest year for Delta was 2019, when 136 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Delta is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Delta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,478 people with the name Delta, or 0.82 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,472 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 Delta 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 Delta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Delta leans strongly female. 2,308 people counted with this name were female (93.0%), compared with 175 male bearers (7.0%). 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 Delta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delta is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Black (14.6%) and Hispanic (12.2%). 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 Delta most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Delta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.2% (1,592 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 Delta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Delta a female name?
Yes, 97.5% of people registered as Delta 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 Delta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Delta 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 Delta 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 Delta 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.