Dalylah
Feminine · “delicate”
Delilah is one of the most vivid names in the Hebrew Bible and one of the least kindly treated: the woman who learns where Samson's strength lies and tells. The story is short, and it has done a great deal of work in western art. Dalylah is a modern respelling that steps back from it slightly.
How old is the name Dalylah?
Dalylah first appears in US birth records in 2001 — 24 years ago. The typical Dalylah is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Dalylah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dalylah most popular?
Dalylah peaked in 2019, reaching #3718 nationally. Today it ranks #4878, 1,160 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Delilah to Dalylah
The story of Dalylah
The Judges account gives Delilah four verses and no motive beyond payment, and readers have been filling that silence for two thousand years, in paintings, operas and films. The name was avoided in English for centuries because of it, then came back in the American South in the nineteenth century, and has been rising steadily again since the two-thousands. Respellings arrived with the revival: Delila, Dalilah, Dalylah and Dalila all circulate, and the last is the standard Spanish and Arabic form.
Meaningscholars disagree
delicate, or one who weakens
Hebrew Delilah is generally connected to a root meaning to be weak or to languish, which reads either as delicate or, pointedly, as one who weakens, given what she does in the story. An Arabic root meaning to guide has also been proposed. Neither is settled.
How the name formed
- Delilah
- Dalila
- Dalylah
Related forms: דלילה · Dalila · Dalila · Delilah
Pronouncing Dalylah
duh-LY-luh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Spanish and Arabic say dah-LEE-lah with a long middle vowel instead, and both are heard in American families.
Nicknames for Dalylah
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
- 2001
- Most girls named
- 201940 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3718reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- +12.5%27 in 2025, from 24
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.
Dalylah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- דלילה in Hebrew — transliteration
- Dalila in Spanish — same name
- Dalila in Arabic — same name
- Delilah in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Dalylahs among us
people named Dalylah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 59,528 born in 2025 was named Dalylah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dalylah
- #4878
- Dalylah on the 2025 chart
- #606
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dalylah went to 27 girls in 2025, but Dalilah, Dalila 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 — 4,272 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 4,208 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 59,528 for Dalylah 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 Darlin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dalylah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darlin climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darlin's path sketches the road Dalylah is walking now.
Dalylah 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 Dalylah is headed
Dalylah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Dalylah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dalylah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Lila is a ready short form and a complete name on its own.
- The rhythm is long and soft, which sits well against short surnames.
- The name behind it is known to almost everyone, which saves explaining.
- Delilah is the standard English spelling and will be written instead.
- The biblical bearer is remembered for a betrayal, and someone will mention it.
- Two pronunciations circulate, one English and one Spanish, and the spelling does not choose.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Dalylah
Feminine · #4878 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dalylahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Dalylah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dalylah?
- Dalylah is one of 4 recorded spellings. Dalilah is the more common one — 197 births in 2025 against 27 for Dalylah.
- How popular is the name Dalylah in 2025?
- Dalylah ranks #4878 among US girl names in 2025, with 27 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dalylah?
- About 1 in every 59,528 US girls born in 2025 was named Dalylah — 27 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dalylah with classmates?
- Dalylah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dalylah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maribelle#4878 · Evangelia#4878 · Pari#4878 · Zoraya#4878 · Saba#4878 · Chyna#4878 · Odyssey#4878 · Zana#4878
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dalylah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dalylah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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