Delany
Feminine
Delany is an Irish surname with a river in it. Ó Dubhshláine means the descendant of the dark one of the Slaney, and the Slaney is a real river running through Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford to the sea.
How old is the name Delany?
Delany first appears in US birth records in 1990 — 35 years ago. The typical Delany alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 1,400 people named Delany are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delany most popular?
Delany peaked in 2024, reaching #2118 nationally. Today it ranks #2859, 741 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ó Dubhshláine to Delany
The story of Delany
The Ó Dubhshláine were a Leinster family, and the surname was anglicized by ear into Delany, Delaney, Dulany and Delaine. It reached America in large numbers with nineteenth-century Irish emigration and became a girls' first name in the twentieth, along with Kelly, Casey, Shannon and Riley — the Irish surnames that American parents moved to the front of the name. The spelling with a single n is the less common of the two and is closer to some of the older anglicizations.
Meaning
descendant of the dark one of the Slaney
Irish Ó Dubhshláine combines dubh, 'black, dark', with Sláine, the name of the river Slaney. The whole is a personal byname turned surname. The reading is documented, and it is one of the more specific Irish surnames — most of them name a quality or a father, and this one names a place as well.
How the name formed
- Ó Dubhshláine
- Delaney
- Delany
Related forms: Ó Dubhshláine · Delaney
Pronouncing Delany
duh-LAY-nee
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Said exactly as Delaney; the single n changes the look and nothing you can hear.
Nicknames for Delany
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
- 1990
- Most girls named
- 202490 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2118reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −34.4%59 in 2025, from 90
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.
Delany in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Dubhshláine in Irish — related form
- Delaney in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Delanys among us
people named Delany are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 27,242 born in 2025 was named Delany
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Delany
- #2859
- Delany on the 2025 chart
- #749
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Delany went to 59 girls in 2025, but Delani and Delanny are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 212, which makes it the 749th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,110 places above the chart.
- Delani146
- Delany59
- Delanny7
About 1 girl in 7,581 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 27,242 for Delany 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 Teah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Delany's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Teah climbed just as high around 1981, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Teah's path sketches the road Delany is walking now.
Delany 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 Delany is headed
Delany looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 34% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Delany beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Delany in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Irish surname with an unusually specific meaning — a person and a river.
- Laney and Del are both ready short forms and both are names of their own.
- Three syllables that every English speaker says correctly at first sight.
- Delaney is the more common spelling and this one will be corrected in writing.
- The Irish-surname-as-girls'-name group is tied closely to one American period.
- Delany, Delaney, Delanie and Dulaney are all in use.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Delany
Feminine · #2859 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Delanys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Delany are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Delany?
- Delany is one of 3 recorded spellings. Delani is the more common one — 146 births in 2025 against 59 for Delany.
- How popular is the name Delany in 2025?
- Delany ranks #2859 among US girl names in 2025, with 59 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Delany?
- About 1 in every 27,242 US girls born in 2025 was named Delany — 59 in all.
- Will my child share the name Delany with classmates?
- Delany will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Delany
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emilly#2859 · Pyper#2859 · Amarie#2859 · Luci#2859 · Issa#2859 · Azaliah#2859 · Malinda#2859 · Kyah#2859
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delany? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Delany and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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