Humanverse

Delia vs Delois

American parents have registered 37,380 Delias since 1880, against 8,622 Deloises. Delia is still ahead, with 135 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Delia against Delois, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Delia Delois

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

Delia has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1948, when Delia had 362 and Delois had 321.

Side by side

  Delia Delois
Total US births 37,3808,622
Most in one year 490321
Babies in 2025 135under 5
Estimated living today 22,0004,900
Median age today 5173
Peak year 19571948
Best rank 423rd girls445th girls
Rank in 2025 1,561stunranked
First recorded 18801912
Girls / boys 37,318 / 628,500 / 122

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 Deloises alive today are over 73; half the Delias are over 51. That is 22 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: Delia and Delois.