Humanverse

Delaney vs Delany

American parents have registered 46,650 Delaneys since 1880, against 1,408 Delanys. Delaney is still ahead, with 1,295 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Delaney against Delany, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Delaney Delany

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Delaney has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1912 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2024, when Delaney had 1,443 and Delany had 90.

Side by side

  Delaney Delany
Total US births 46,6501,408
Most in one year 2,03090
Babies in 2025 1,29559
Estimated living today 46,0001,400
Median age today 1713
Peak year 20042024
Best rank 169th girls2,118th girls
Rank in 2025 242nd2,859th
First recorded 19121990
Girls / boys 45,437 / 1,2131,408 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Delaneys alive today are over 17; half the Delanys are over 13. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Delaney and Delany.