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Delilah vs Delpha

American parents have registered 66,683 Delilahs since 1880, against 2,025 Delphas. Delilah is still ahead, with 4,137 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Delilah against Delpha, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Delilah Delpha

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 146 years in which either name was published, Delilah for 138 years and Delpha for 8 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Delilah Delpha
Total US births 66,6832,025
Most in one year 4,25474
Babies in 2025 4,137under 5
Estimated living today 63,000350
Median age today 878
Peak year 20241921
Best rank 50th girls857th girls
Rank in 2025 51stunranked
First recorded 18801882
Girls / boys 66,683 / 02,025 / 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 Delphas alive today are over 78; half the Delilahs are over 8. That is 70 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: Delilah and Delpha.