Delena
Feminine
Lena is the tail end of half a dozen longer names — Helena, Magdalena, Carolina, Marilena, Yelena — and it broke free of all of them to become a standing name in its own right. Delena adds the De- that American naming has used as a front element for a century. The result sounds Southern European and was built in the United States.
How old is the name Delena?
Delena first appears in US birth records in 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Delena alive today was born around 1967, making them about 58 years old. About 1,700 people named Delena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delena most popular?
Delena peaked in 1967, reaching #1460 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 11,748 places below that high. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lena to Delena
The story of Delena
American naming has used De- as a productive prefix since at least the early twentieth century, attaching it to almost any base — Delena, Delisa, Deshawn, Demarcus. It functions the way La- and Da- do: it adds a light syllable at the front and pushes the stress back, which turns a familiar base into a distinct name. Lena was widely available as a base because it was already a standing name, having escaped from the longer names it once ended. Delena appears in American records across most of the twentieth century, never in numbers.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The compound has no documented meaning. Lena, the base, has no single one either — it is the ending of several unrelated names, and which one a Lena descends from depends entirely on her family. Helena is Greek and probably means torch or bright; Magdalena is a place name; Carolina goes back to the Germanic word for a free man. The De- carries nothing.
How the name formed
- Lena
- Delena
Pronouncing Delena
duh-LEE-nuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Some families say duh-LAY-nuh, following Delaney; both are heard and the spelling does not settle it.
Nicknames for Delena
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
- 1902
- Most girls named
- 196758 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1460reached in 1967
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%6 in 2025, from 6
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.
Delenas among us
people named Delena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Delena
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 Irmgard test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Delena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Irmgard climbed just as high around 1930, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Irmgard's path sketches the road Delena is walking now.
Delena 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
Delena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Delena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It shortens to a complete European name rather than to a fragment.
- Dee and Del are both available and belong to different registers.
- Three open syllables sit well after almost any surname.
- It sounds established while being genuinely uncommon.
- Delaina, Delina and Dalena all appear in records, so the spelling has to be given.
- The middle vowel is not settled, so the name is said two ways.
- There is no meaning to hand a child, only the account of the parts it was built from.
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What they receive
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Delena
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Delenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Delena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Delena in 2025?
- Delena ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Delena?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Delena — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Delena with classmates?
- Delena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Delena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Delena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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