Dalani
Feminine · “heavenly”
Dalani is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 681 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Dalani joins a Da- front to the -lani ending, and the lani is genuine Hawaiian for the sky even where the compound is American.
How old is the name Dalani?
Dalani first appears in US birth records in 2000 — 25 years ago. The typical Dalani is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Dalani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dalani most popular?
Dalani peaked in 2025, reaching #1880 nationally. Today it ranks #1880, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lani to Dalani
Our story of Dalani
Our story of Dalani is a story of a suffix that outgrew its language. Hawaiian gave American naming -lani through Leilani and Kailani, and once the ending was recognizable families attached their own fronts — Kaelani, Maelani, Ahlani, Dalani. The back half is real Hawaiian and means exactly what it says. The front is not, and Dalani appears in the American registers only in the 2010s. Both halves of that are worth keeping straight.
Meaningscholars disagree
heavenly
The lani element is genuine Hawaiian for 'sky', 'heaven' or 'royal', and closes many real names. The Da- front is not documented in Hawaiian and circulates in American naming from Dalia and Dana. The compound is half genuine and half modern.
How the name formed
- lani
- Dalani
Related forms: Leilani · Kailani · Delani
Pronouncing Dalani
duh-LAH-nee
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Hawaiian gives every vowel a full value with no reduction.
Nicknames for Dalani
Moderate
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
- 2000
- Most girls named
- 2025104 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1880reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +23.8%104 in 2025, from 84
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.
Dalani in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leilani in Hawaiian — related form
- Kailani in Hawaiian — related form
- Delani in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Georgia, Texas.
Dalanis among us
people named Dalani are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,454 born in 2025 was named Dalani
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 Breyanna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dalani's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Breyanna climbed just as high around 1995, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Breyanna's path sketches the road Dalani is walking now.
Dalani 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 Dalani is headed
Dalani looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 43% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Dalani beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dalani in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The lani ending is genuinely Hawaiian and its meaning is undisputed.
- Lani is available as a short form that is a complete Hawaiian name.
- Three syllables of open vowels, which carries unusually well.
- It is not a traditional Hawaiian name and the front is not from that language.
- Delaney and Dalani are close enough in sound to be confused.
- It is very new in American records.
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What they receive
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Dalani
Feminine · #1880 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dalanis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Dalani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dalani in 2025?
- Dalani ranks #1880 among US girl names in 2025, with 104 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dalani?
- About 1 in every 15,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Dalani — 104 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dalani with classmates?
- Dalani will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dalani
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kiari#1880 · Azuri#1880 · Samaria#1880 · Divine#1880 · Akari#1880 · Aashvi#1880 · Analiyah#1880 · Dhriti#1880
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dalani? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dalani 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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