Dahlia
Feminine · “The dahlia flower”
The flower came north from Mexico, where it was cultivated long before Spanish botanists sent tubers to Madrid in the 1780s, and the plant was named for Anders Dahl, a Swedish botanist who had studied under Linnaeus. The name reached English through the Victorian fashion for calling daughters after flowers, and it has never quite left. Two syllables, a soft landing — the same open ending that Amelia and Julia share.
How old is the name Dahlia?
Dahlia first appears in US birth records in 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Dahlia is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 18,500 people named Dahlia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dahlia most popular?
Dahlia peaked in 2025, reaching #215 nationally. Today it ranks #215, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Dahlia appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From dal — Old Norse 'valley' to Dahlia
The story of Dahlia
The plant was grown in the valley of Mexico centuries before Europeans saw it, and it traveled to Spain at the end of the eighteenth century, where it was named for a Swedish botanist who had died only a year or two earlier. From the botanical name it passed into ordinary English as a garden word, and from there into the nineteenth-century habit of naming girls Violet, Rose, Iris and Lily. Mexico declared the dahlia its national flower in 1963, which gives the word a second home and a second set of speakers. Its recent revival in American use runs alongside the return of other flower names, and it is strongest in the states where Spanish is most widely spoken.
Meaning
The dahlia flower; through the surname Dahl, ultimately 'valley'
The Spanish botanist Antonio José Cavanilles named the genus Dahlia in 1791 in honor of Anders Dahl, whose surname comes from the Scandinavian word for a valley. A separate name meets this spelling from another direction: Hebrew Dalia, a branch or vine tendril, and Lithuanian Dalia, a portion or fate. Parents who spell it Dahlia are usually reaching for the flower.
How the name formed
- dal — Old Norse 'valley'
- Dahl — Scandinavian surname
- Dahlia — botanical genus, named 1791
- Dahlia — given name
Related forms: Dalia · Dalia / Dalya · Dalia (داليا) · Dalia · Daliah · Даля (Dalya)
Pronouncing Dahlia
DAL-yuh
American speakers say DAL-yuh or DAHL-yuh. British and Australian speakers usually say DAY-lee-uh for the flower, and Spanish speakers say DAH-lee-ah. All are correct for the word; you get to pick which one is the child's.
Nicknames for Dahlia
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1890
- Most girls named
- 20251,420 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #215reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +15.6%1,420 in 2025, from 1,228
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Dahlia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dalia in Spanish — same name
- Dalia / Dalya in Hebrew — related form
- Dalia (داليا) in Arabic — transliteration
- Dalia in Lithuanian — related form
- Daliah in English — spelling variant
- Даля (Dalya) in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Dahlias among us
people named Dahlia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,132 born in 2025 was named Dahlia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Raquel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dahlia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Raquel climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Raquel's path sketches the road Dahlia is walking now.
Dahlia is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Dahlia is headed
Dahlia looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 18% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Dahlia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dahlia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone already knows the word, so it is heard correctly the first time even when the spelling has to be repeated.
- Works in English and Spanish with only a small shift in stress, which matters in the states where it is most used.
- A parallel name, Hebrew and Lithuanian Dalia, gives it a second set of communities where it is familiar.
- Rare enough in classrooms to belong to one child, common enough as a word to need no explanation.
- The pronunciation genuinely splits: DAL-yuh, DAHL-yuh and DAY-lee-uh are all in use. She will correct people occasionally, and it is worth deciding which one you mean before the birth announcement.
- The silent h is easy to lose. Expect Dalia, Dalya and Daliah on forms, and a lifetime of spelling it out once.
- The 1947 Los Angeles murder case known as the Black Dahlia still attracts films and books. It attaches to the phrase rather than the name, and most people meet the flower first, but it exists.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Dahlia to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Dahlia
Feminine · #215 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dahlias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 18,500 people named Dahlia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dahlia in 2025?
- Dahlia ranks #215 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,420 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dahlia?
- About 1 in every 1,132 US girls born in 2025 was named Dahlia — 1,420 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dahlia with classmates?
- Dahlia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dahlia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lennon#214 · Selah#216 · Arabella#213 · Saylor#217 · Zara#212 · Elianna#218 · Ada#219 · Aitana#211
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dahlia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dahlia and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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