Dela
Feminine
Dela is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 560 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Dela stood inside the American top thirteen hundred in 1888, and like most short names of that decade it is a clipping whose parent is not recorded. Adela, Delia, Cordelia, Adelaide and Fidelia all produce it. It is also, separately, a genuine Ewe name from Ghana, which is a different name entirely sharing four letters.
How old is the name Dela?
Dela first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Dela alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 400 people named Dela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dela most popular?
Dela peaked in 1888, reaching #1276 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 4,840 places below that high. See the whole 1888 chart.
Where it comes from
From adal to Dela
Our story of Dela
It is worth pausing on how the Germanic element adal spread. It means noble, and it is one of the two or three most productive elements in the whole European name stock: Adela, Adelaide, Adeline, Adelie, Alice, Ethel, Albert, Adolf, Aldo and dozens more descend from it, in every language from Portuguese to Swedish. The reason is not that Europeans were unusually preoccupied with nobility; it is that Germanic naming worked by combining elements from a family's stock, and a family that used adal once would use it again for the next child and the next generation. Elements bred. Once adal was in a family it stayed for centuries, throwing off new compounds each time, and the compounds then wore down into short forms like Dela. A four-letter American name from 1888 can be the last surviving syllable of a naming system that ran for a thousand years.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The meaning depends on the parent. Adela is Germanic, from adal, 'noble'. Delia is Greek, an epithet of Artemis from the island of Delos. Cordelia's origin is genuinely obscure — Shakespeare took it from earlier British legend and its derivation has never been settled. In Ewe, spoken in Ghana and Togo, Dela means savior and is an ordinary name. The nineteenth-century American Dela is one of the first three; the modern one may be any of the four.
How the name formed
- adal
- Adela
- Dela
Related forms: Dela · Adela · Delia
Pronouncing Dela
DEH-lah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a short e. A second saying, DEE-lah with a long e, is also heard and follows the Delia reading. Both circulate in American use.
Nicknames for Dela
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
- 1888
- Most girls named
- 202519 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1276reached in 1888
- Change vs 2024
- +90.0%19 in 2025, from 10
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.
Dela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dela in Ewe — same name
- Adela in German — related form
- Delia in Italian — related form
Delas among us
people named Dela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Dela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dela
- #6116
- Dela on the 2025 chart
- #483
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dela went to 19 girls in 2025, but Della and Dellah are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 559, which makes it the 483rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,633 places above the chart.
- Della533
- Dela19
- Dellah7
About 1 girl in 2,875 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 84,593 for Dela 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
Fashion outlook
Dela 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
Dela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two syllables, and spellable by anyone who hears it.
- Adela, Delia and Cordelia are all available as longer, formal alternatives.
- It has a genuine independent life as an Ewe name in Ghana and Togo.
- Two vowel readings circulate for the first syllable.
- It is close to Della, Delia and Bella and will be misheard.
- The meaning depends entirely on which longer name a family clipped it from.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Dela 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.
Already decided on Dela? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Dela
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Delas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Dela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dela?
- Dela is one of 3 recorded spellings. Della is the more common one — 533 births in 2025 against 19 for Dela.
- How popular is the name Dela in 2025?
- Dela ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dela?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Dela — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dela with classmates?
- Dela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dela and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle