Humanverse

Delaney vs Deloras

American parents have registered 46,650 Delaneys since 1880, against 908 Delorases. Delaney is still ahead, with 1,295 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Delaney Deloras

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

Of the 114 years in which either name was published, Delaney for 70 years and Deloras for 44 years. The lead changed hands 13 times.

11 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Delaney Deloras
Total US births 46,650908
Most in one year 2,03039
Babies in 2025 1,295under 5
Estimated living today 46,000330
Median age today 1777
Peak year 20041930
Best rank 169th girls1,197th girls
Rank in 2025 242ndunranked
First recorded 19121910
Girls / boys 45,437 / 1,213908 / 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 Delorases alive today are over 77; half the Delaneys are over 17. That is 60 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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