Dalyn
Masculine · “valley”
Dalyn is given to both — 917 boys and 389 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
The first half of Dalyn is real geography. Dale is a valley, from Old Norse dalr, and it is the word behind Yorkshire's dales and every English surname ending in -dale. The -lyn behind it is a suffix with no content, so the name is half landscape and half sound.
How old is the name Dalyn?
Dalyn first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Dalyn alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 900 people named Dalyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dalyn most popular?
Dalyn peaked in 2002, reaching #2295 nationally. Today it ranks #6446, 4,151 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dalr to Dalyn
The story of Dalyn
Dale was a standard American man's name through the middle of the twentieth century, and the -lyn family of endings was simultaneously attaching itself to everything in reach. Names in the overlap arrived in the 1980s and 1990s, and Dalyn, Dallin, Dalen and Dallen all appear together. The Dallin spelling has a distinct life of its own in Utah and Idaho, where it honors a prominent leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that regional concentration is visible in the data. Dalyn's own best year in United States records is 2002, and it is used for both sexes in small numbers.
Meaningscholars disagree
valley, with a modern suffix
Dale descends from Old Norse dalr and Old English dael, a valley, and gives the English surname and given name Dale directly. Whether this name is built on it or is simply an arrangement of the Da- prefix and the -lyn ending cannot be settled, and both accounts have support. The -lyn derives from Lynn, from a Welsh and English word for a pool, and carries no meaning in this position.
How the name formed
- dalr
- Dale
- Dalyn
Related forms: Dallin · Dalen · Dalr
Pronouncing Dalyn
DAY-lin
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Some families say DAL-in with a short first vowel, following Dallin rather than Dale, and both are current.
Nicknames for Dalyn
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
- 1978
- Most boys named
- 200245 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2295reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- +44.4%13 in 2025, from 9
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.
Dalyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dallin in English — spelling variant
- Dalen in English — spelling variant
- Dalr in Old Norse — related form
Dalyns among us
people named Dalyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 131,390 born in 2025 was named Dalyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dalyn
- #6446
- Dalyn on the 2025 chart
- #880
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dalyn went to 13 boys in 2025, but Dallin is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 48, which makes it the 880th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,566 places above the chart.
- Dallin35
- Dalyn13
About 1 boy in 35,585 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 131,390 for Dalyn 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 Jenaro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dalyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jenaro climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jenaro's path sketches the road Dalyn is walking now.
Dalyn 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
Dalyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dalyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A real English and Norse word for a valley behind the first half.
- Dale is available as a complete, established everyday form.
- Five letters and no spelling difficulty.
- Dallin, Dalen and Dallen all circulate and are said differently.
- The first vowel is long or short depending on which spelling a reader knows.
- The -lyn ending is heavily used on girls' names.
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Dalyn
Masculine · #6446 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dalyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Dalyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dalyn?
- Dalyn is one of 2 recorded spellings. Dallin is the more common one — 35 births in 2025 against 13 for Dalyn.
- How popular is the name Dalyn in 2025?
- Dalyn ranks #6446 among US boy names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dalyn?
- About 1 in every 131,390 US boys born in 2025 was named Dalyn — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dalyn with classmates?
- Dalyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dalyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rollie#6446 · Billie#6446 · Worth#6446 · Blas#6446 · Starling#6446 · Alvis#6446 · Elwyn#6446 · Rollin#6446
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dalyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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