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Delaney vs Delphin

American parents have registered 46,650 Delaneys since 1880, against 116 Delphins. Delaney is still ahead, with 1,295 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Delaney Delphin

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 106 years in which either name was published, Delaney for 93 years and Delphin for 13 years. The lead changed hands 13 times.

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

Side by side

  Delaney Delphin
Total US births 46,650116
Most in one year 2,03013
Babies in 2025 1,295under 5
Estimated living today 46,0004
Median age today 1791
Peak year 20041907
Best rank 169th girls735th boys
Rank in 2025 242ndunranked
First recorded 19121907
Girls / boys 45,437 / 1,2130 / 116

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 Delphins alive today are over 91; half the Delaneys are over 17. That is 74 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 Delphin.