Delilah
Feminine · Hebrew roots
Delilah comes out of the Book of Judges, where it belongs to the woman of the Valley of Sorek who learned the secret of Samson's strength. For a long time English speakers admired the sound and kept a careful distance from the story; the sound eventually won. Three syllables, stress in the middle, an open vowel at each end.
How old is the name Delilah?
Delilah was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Delilah is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 63,500 people named Delilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delilah most popular?
Delilah peaked in 2024, reaching #50 nationally. Today it ranks #51, 1 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Where it comes from
From Delilah (Hebrew) to Delilah
The story of Delilah
The name is Hebrew and reaches English through scripture: Judges 16 in the Hebrew Bible, then Dalida in the Greek of the Septuagint and Dalila in the Latin Vulgate. English Bibles settled on Delilah, and that spelling is the one that stuck in the language, even while the story kept most parents from using it. It surfaced quietly in English-speaking families from the seventeenth century onward and has been in American records for as long as such records exist. Two twentieth-century songs — Tom Jones's "Delilah" in the late 1960s and the Plain White T's "Hey There Delilah" in the mid-2000s — put the name back in the ear of listeners who had never opened Judges.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most often read as "delicate" or "she who weakened"
The usual reading traces the name to the Hebrew root d-l-l, "to be low, to hang down, to be weak" — hence "delicate," or, read against the Samson story, "she who weakened him." A second serious reading connects it instead to Hebrew laylah, "night." Neither has pushed the other out.
How the name formed
- DelilahHebrew
- DalidaGreek, Septuagint
- DalilaLatin, Vulgate
- DelilahEnglish
Related forms: Dalila · Dalila · Dalila · Dalila · Delila · Delila
Pronouncing Delilah
dih-LY-lah
Three syllables with the stress on the middle one, which carries the long i of "my." English speakers say it correctly on sight; the Spanish, French and Italian Dalila puts the stress in the same place but uses an ee sound: dah-LEE-lah.
Nicknames for Delilah
High
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 girls named
- 20254,137 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #50reached in 2024
- Change vs 2022
- +6.8%4,137 in 2025, from 3,874
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.
Delilah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dalila in Spanish — same name
- Dalila in French — same name
- Dalila in Italian — same name
- Dalila in Portuguese — same name
- Delila in German — spelling variant
- Delila in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Office for National Statistics. Sources
Delilahs among us
people named Delilah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 389 born in 2025 was named Delilah
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 Sylvia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Delilah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sylvia climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sylvia's path sketches the road Delilah is walking now.
Delilah is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Delilah is headed
Delilah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Delilah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Delilah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling nobody has to be taught — it is the form printed in English Bibles for four centuries.
- Several short forms already in circulation: Lila, Lilah, Dee, Della.
- Travels well: recognized across Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese as Dalila, and in use in England and Wales too.
- Unbroken presence in American records rather than a recent invention, so it reads as familiar even where it is not often heard.
- The Samson story is one of betrayal, and some people — particularly churchgoing relatives — will mention it. Others know only the songs, or nothing at all.
- "Hey There Delilah" has been sung at every Delilah of the last two decades, and probably will be for a while yet.
- Dalila and Delila are both real spellings elsewhere, so expect the occasional correction, and Lila as a nickname doubles as a very common name on its own.
- It is climbing, so it will likely be less unusual by the time she starts school than it is on the day you choose it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Delilah
Feminine · Hebrew roots · #51 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Delilahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 63,500 people named Delilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Delilah in 2025?
- Delilah ranks #51 among US girl names in 2025, with 4,137 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Delilah?
- About 1 in every 389 US girls born in 2025 was named Delilah — 4,137 in all.
- Will my child share the name Delilah with classmates?
- Delilah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Delilah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sadie#50 · Stella#52 · Josephine#53 · Eloise#49 · Victoria#54 · Riley#48 · Naomi#47 · Sophie#55
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delilah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Delilah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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