Delbert
Masculine · “bright”
Delbert is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 46,930 boys against 126 girls since 1880.
Delbert is a name assembled from parts. The -bert ending is the Germanic word for bright, borrowed from Albert and Herbert; the Del- front is borrowed from Delmar or from the French particle. The result is nineteenth-century American.
How old is the name Delbert?
Delbert was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Delbert alive today was born around 1936, making them about 89 years old. About 16,500 people named Delbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delbert most popular?
Delbert peaked in 1920, reaching #150 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 6,653 places below that high. See the whole 1920 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From beraht to Delbert
The story of Delbert
Nineteenth-century American families made new names by recombining familiar elements, and the -bert ending was one of the most productive: Delbert, Elbert, Wilbert, Norbert and Hulbert all appear in the records of the period. Some of these have documented European ancestors and some do not. Delbert rose through the later nineteenth century and peaked around 1920, then faded as the whole -bert family did.
Meaningscholars disagree
bright
The second element is secure: the Germanic beraht, 'bright', the same one in Albert, Herbert, Robert and Bertha. The first is not. It may be a reduction of Adelbert, giving the same name as Albert by another road; it may be the Del- of Delmar; or it may simply be a syllable chosen for sound. Nothing settles it.
How the name formed
- beraht
- Adelbert
- Delbert
Related forms: Adelbert · Elbert · Dalbert
Pronouncing Delbert
DEL-burt
Two syllables, stress on the first. No variation between English accents.
Nicknames for Delbert
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19301,013 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #150reached in 1920
- Change vs 2022
- −20.0%12 in 2025, from 15
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.
Delbert in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Adelbert in German — related form
- Elbert in English — related form
- Dalbert in English — spelling variant
Delberts among us
people named Delbert are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Delbert
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Bennie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Delbert's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bennie climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bennie's path sketches the road Delbert is walking now.
Delbert 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
Delbert beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Delbert in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The -bert element is documented and connects it to a large European family.
- Two firm syllables that stand up well against a short surname.
- Del and Bert are both available and pull in different directions.
- The first element has no settled origin.
- The whole -bert family is strongly period-coded to the turn of the last century.
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What they receive
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Delbert
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Delberts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 16,500 people named Delbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Delbert in 2025?
- Delbert ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Delbert?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Delbert — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Delbert with classmates?
- Delbert will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Delbert
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delbert? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Delbert and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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