Delane
Masculine · “the dark one of the Slaney”
Delane is given to both — 923 boys and 955 girls since 1880. See Delane as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Delane is a three-syllable Irish surname with a syllable taken off. What is left sounds French, looks French, and is not: the name comes from a river in Leinster and a word for the color black, and it is given in America to sons and daughters both.
How old is the name Delane?
Delane first appears in US birth records in 1922 — 103 years ago. The typical Delane alive today was born around 1959, making them about 66 years old. About 600 people named Delane are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delane most popular?
Delane peaked in 1938, reaching #1521 nationally. See the whole 1938 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Irish dubh, black, joins Sláine, the river Slaney to Delane
The story of Delane
The Slaney rises in the Wicklow mountains and runs south through Carlow and Wexford to the sea, and it was a working river long before it was a scenic one: a route inland for Viking and later Norman shipping, a boundary between lordships, a course lined with mills. Irish surnames built on rivers are not common — most take a personal name, a trade or a color — and the ones that do exist tend to belong to families whose identity was tied to a stretch of water rather than to a hill fort or a townland. The O Dubhshláine were one of those, seated in the country between Laois and the river's headwaters. The English form Delaney came out of that, and Delane is the American clipping of the English form: three removes from the river, and still carrying its name.
Meaningscholars disagree
the dark one of the Slaney
The Irish surname is Ó Dubhshláine, and it is usually read as dubh, black or dark, joined to Sláine — either the river Slaney or a personal name built on the same element. So the full form describes somebody dark associated with that river, which is about as specific as early Irish surnames get. This shortened spelling drops the final syllable and with it the visible connection to the surname, which means the meaning above belongs to the name it came from rather than to the form on this page.
How the name formed
- Irish dubh, black, joins Sláine, the river Slaney
- Ó Dubhshláine becomes a surname in the Irish midlands
- English writes it Delaney and it travels with emigration
- American use drops the final syllable, giving Delane
- The shortened form is recorded for sons and daughters alike
Related forms: Ó Dubhshláine · Delaney · Delayne
Pronouncing Delane
duh-LAYN
Two syllables with the stress at the end. The surname it comes from has three, and restoring the third produces a different and much commoner name, so the difference is worth stating clearly at introductions.
Nicknames for Delane
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
- 1922
- Most boys named
- 194923 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1521reached in 1938
- Change vs 2003
- 0.0%5 in 2010, from 5
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.
Delane in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Dubhshláine in Irish — related form
- Delaney in English — related form
- Delayne in English — spelling variant
Delanes among us
people named Delane are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Delane sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A clean final stress that makes the name sound decisive when spoken
- Genuine Irish material behind it, with a river that can be pointed at on a map
- Works for a son or a daughter, and has short forms that suit either
- Almost everyone will add the missing syllable and write Delaney.
- The name reads as French to English speakers, which obscures where it actually comes from.
- Given to both sexes, so it carries no signal on a written list.
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Delane
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Delanes 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 Delane are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Delane in 2025?
- Delane is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Delane with classmates?
- Delane will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delane? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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