Delaina
Feminine
Elaine was a name out of Arthurian romance and nowhere else until Tennyson wrote about her. The Lady of Shalott in 1832 and Lancelot and Elaine in 1859 sold in numbers a modern poet cannot imagine, and the name went into general use immediately.
How old is the name Delaina?
Delaina first appears in US birth records in 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Delaina alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 1,500 people named Delaina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delaina most popular?
Delaina peaked in 1968, reaching #2205 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 7,902 places below that high. See the whole 1968 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Helen to Delaina
Our story of Delaina
Tennyson was the best-selling poet of the nineteenth century, and his Arthurian poems did what novels usually do: they put names into households. Elaine of Astolat, who dies for love of Lancelot and is floated down to Camelot on a barge, appears first as the Lady of Shalott in 1832 and then under her own name in the Idylls of the King, and by the 1880s Elaine is an ordinary English and American given name rather than a figure in Malory. Everything after that is American reworking. Elaine gives Delaine, Delaine gives Delaina and Delayna, and the De- prefix, one of the most productive openings in the twentieth-century list, attaches wherever a name will take it. Behind all of it stands Helen, whose meaning nobody has ever established.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Delaina is an American formation, most plausibly the De- prefix on Laina, or a respelling of Delaine or Elaine. Elaine is the Old French form of Helen, whose meaning is genuinely unknown despite many confident glosses. No documented etymology attaches to this spelling; the peak is 1968.
How the name formed
- Helen
- Elaine
- Delaine
- Delaina
Related forms: Delayna · Delaine · Elaine
Pronouncing Delaina
duh-LAY-nuh
Three syllables, stress on the second. Delaina, Delayna and Delaine are said the same way apart from the final vowel.
Nicknames for Delaina
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
- 1952
- Most girls named
- 197135 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2205reached in 1968
- Change vs 2024
- +28.6%9 in 2025, from 7
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.
Delaina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Delayna in English — spelling variant
- Delaine in English — spelling variant
- Elaine in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Delainas among us
people named Delaina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Delaina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Delaina
- #10107
- Delaina on the 2025 chart
- #943
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Delaina went to 9 girls in 2025, but Delayna is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 17, which makes it the 943rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,164 places above the chart.
- Delaina9
- Delayna8
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 178,585 for Delaina 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 Diamantina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Delaina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Diamantina climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Diamantina's path sketches the road Delaina is walking now.
Delaina 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
Delaina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Delaina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Dee and Lainie are two short forms in different styles.
- Three syllables with a clear central stress.
- The spelling makes the middle vowel unambiguous.
- Several spellings compete and none is standard.
- The name behind it, Helen, has no established meaning.
- The 1968 peak dates it to the 1960s.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Delaina
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Delainas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Delaina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Delaina?
- Delaina is the most-used spelling in US records — 9 of the 17 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Delayna.
- How popular is the name Delaina in 2025?
- Delaina ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Delaina?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Delaina — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Delaina with classmates?
- Delaina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Delaina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delaina? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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