Dalila
Feminine · “delicate”
Dalila is the Spanish and Italian of Delilah, and the Hebrew is generally read as delicate — a soft word for a woman remembered for a haircut that ended a war.
How old is the name Dalila?
Dalila first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Dalila alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 5,900 people named Dalila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dalila most popular?
Dalila peaked in 2009, reaching #1207 nationally. Today it ranks #1525, 318 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Dalila appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Delilah to Dalila
The story of Dalila
Delilah takes Samson's secret and cuts his hair in Judges 16, and the story made the name unusable in English for centuries. Spanish and Italian kept Dalila without the same weight, and Swahili has its own unrelated Dalila. Spanish-speaking and East African families brought both to America, where the name appears rising through the 2000s.
Meaningscholars disagree
delicate, languishing
From the Hebrew Delilah, generally read from a root meaning 'delicate', 'weak' or 'languishing'. A second reading connects it to laylah, 'night'. Neither is settled. In Swahili, dalila is a separate word meaning 'sign' or 'evidence', and the name is used in East Africa on that basis.
How the name formed
- Delilah
- Dalila
Related forms: Dalila · Dalila · Dalila · Delilah
Pronouncing Dalila
dah-LEE-lah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Spanish, Italian and Swahili all say it the same way.
Nicknames for Dalila
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 2009207 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1207reached in 2009
- Change vs 2023
- −15.8%139 in 2025, from 165
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.
Dalila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dalila in Spanish — same name
- Dalila in Italian — same name
- Dalila in Swahili — same name
- Delilah in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Dalilas among us
people named Dalila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 11,563 born in 2025 was named Dalila
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dalila
- #1525
- Dalila on the 2025 chart
- #606
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dalila went to 139 girls in 2025, but Dalilah, Dalylah and Dalyla are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 382, which makes it the 606th most-given girls’ name of the year — 919 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 4,208 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 11,563 for Dalila itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Audrie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dalila's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Audrie climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Audrie's path sketches the road Dalila is walking now.
Dalila sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Dalila is headed
Dalila looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 23% 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.
Dalila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dalila in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three separate living traditions use it, and the Swahili one has its own meaning.
- Lila is available as a short form that is fashionable in its own right.
- Three syllables of open vowels, which carries well.
- The biblical Delilah is a difficult association for some families.
- The Hebrew meaning is genuinely unsettled.
- Delilah is the form English speakers will assume.
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What they receive
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Dalila
Feminine · #1525 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dalilas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,900 people named Dalila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dalila?
- Dalila is one of 4 recorded spellings. Dalilah is the more common one — 197 births in 2025 against 139 for Dalila.
- How popular is the name Dalila in 2025?
- Dalila ranks #1525 among US girl names in 2025, with 139 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dalila?
- About 1 in every 11,563 US girls born in 2025 was named Dalila — 139 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dalila with classmates?
- Dalila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dalila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Blessyn#1525 · Symphony#1525 · Eloisa#1525 · Yuri#1525 · Emmalynn#1525 · Anniston#1525 · Brenda#1525 · Nour#1525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dalila? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dalila and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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