Delmar
Masculine · “of the sea”
Delmar is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 14,242 boys against 134 girls since 1880.
Delmar is 'of the sea' in Spanish — del mar — fused into one word. It belongs to a small American group of names built from a Romance phrase rather than from a single word.
How old is the name Delmar?
Delmar was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Delmar alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 4,900 people named Delmar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delmar most popular?
Delmar peaked in 1931, reaching #294 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 5,567 places below that high. See the whole 1931 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From del mar to Delmar
The story of Delmar
American naming of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries built names from fused Romance phrases — Delmar, Delroy, Lamar, Laverne — sometimes from Spanish, sometimes from French, and often simply from the sound. The Spanish-speaking Southwest supplied one route and Louisiana another. Delmar appears in the registers from the 1880s and peaked around 1920.
Meaningscholars disagree
of the sea
The Spanish del mar, 'of the sea', is the commonest reading and is a genuine phrase used in place names and titles. A competing account derives it from the Norman French de la mer, with the same sense, or from an English surname Delamere, 'of the lake'. All three arrive at water.
How the name formed
- del mar
- Delmar
Related forms: Delmar · Delmer · Delamere
Pronouncing Delmar
DEL-mar
Two syllables, stress on the first, in American use. Spanish stresses the second — del MAR — following the phrase.
Nicknames for Delmar
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
- 1920335 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #294reached in 1931
- Change vs 2022
- +7.1%15 in 2025, from 14
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.
Delmar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Delmar in Spanish — same name
- Delmer in English — spelling variant
- Delamere in French — related form
Delmars among us
people named Delmar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Delmar
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 Odell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Delmar's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Odell climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Odell's path sketches the road Delmar is walking now.
Delmar 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
Delmar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Delmar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The sea meaning is concrete and attractive, and the Spanish phrase is genuine.
- Del is a short, plain form available immediately.
- Two firm syllables that pair well with almost any surname.
- The origin is split between Spanish, French and English readings, though all mean much the same.
- The stress differs between English and Spanish use.
- It is period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Delmar
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Delmars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,900 people named Delmar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Delmar in 2025?
- Delmar ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Delmar?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Delmar — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Delmar with classmates?
- Delmar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Delmar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delmar? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Delmar and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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