Delicia
Feminine · “delight”
Deliciae is what a Roman called someone they were fond of. The word means delight or pleasure, and in letters and poems it is used directly as a term of endearment — my delight, said to a child or a lover. Delicia is that word turned into a name, and it is one of the few English names that is a Latin word for affection rather than for a virtue.
How old is the name Delicia?
Delicia first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Delicia alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 2,500 people named Delicia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delicia most popular?
Delicia peaked in 1971, reaching #1148 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,060 places below that high. See the whole 1971 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From deliciae to Delicia
The story of Delicia
Latin abstract nouns became English names in two waves: through the church, which supplied Grace and Felicity, and through the eighteenth and nineteenth-century taste for Latinate coinages, which supplied a great many more. Delicia belongs to the second. It appears in English records from the seventeenth century onward and in American ones from the middle of the twentieth, with a real cluster in the 1960s and 1970s. It has the particular quality of names that were chosen for their sound and turn out to have solid Latin behind them.
Meaning
delight, pleasure
From the Latin deliciae, a plural noun meaning delight or luxury, used in classical Latin as a direct term of endearment — Cicero and Catullus both use it that way. The English words delicious and delight come from the same root.
How the name formed
- deliciae
- Delicia
Related forms: Deliciae · Delicia · Delizia
Pronouncing Delicia
dih-LEESH-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The ci in English says sh, following the same rule as in delicious and special; Latin would have said a hard k, and Spanish says a plain s.
Nicknames for Delicia
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
- 1946
- Most girls named
- 1971101 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1148reached in 1971
- Change vs 2021
- +20.0%6 in 2025, 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.
Delicia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Deliciae in Latin — related form
- Delicia in Spanish — same name
- Delizia in Italian — same name
Delicias among us
people named Delicia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Delicia
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 Ileana test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Delicia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ileana climbed just as high around 1926, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ileana's path sketches the road Delicia is walking now.
Delicia 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
Delicia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Delicia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is warm, documented and takes one word to give.
- It has real Latin behind it rather than a constructed etymology.
- Three open syllables sit well with almost any surname.
- It is genuinely uncommon while being immediately readable.
- It sounds very close to the English word delicious, and the association is unavoidable.
- Delisha, Delisa and Delecia all appear in records, so the spelling has to be given.
- A name that means delight puts a certain amount of weight on a person, which some children mind.
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What they receive
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Delicia
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Delicias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Delicia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Delicia in 2025?
- Delicia ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Delicia?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Delicia — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Delicia with classmates?
- Delicia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Delicia
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 Delicia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Delicia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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