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Delora

Feminine · “sorrows”

1887high 1917
Rare todaygiven to only a few children a year
rare

Dolores means sorrows, in the plural, and it is a title of the Virgin rather than a description of a child. Delora moves a vowel and drops the s, which takes away the plural and with it most of the reference — leaving a name that sounds like the original and no longer says what it said.

How old is the name Delora?

Delora first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Delora alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 1,500 people named Delora are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Delora most popular?

Delora peaked in 1917, reaching #923 nationally. See the whole 1917 chart.

Compare this nameMore “D” names

Lists built from the same records:

I

Where it comes from

The story of Delora

Spanish and Italian Catholic naming draws heavily on titles of the Virgin, and the titles are often startling out of context: Dolores for her sorrows, Soledad for her solitude, Angustias for her anguish, Mercedes for her mercies. Each of them is a shorthand for a whole devotion with its own feast and its own images. Delora is what happens when the name travels away from the tradition that produced it: the s goes, the vowels shift toward English, and what is left is a pleasant sound with the theology worn off. The record carries it from the eighteen-eighties.

Meaning

sorrows

The Spanish title Maria de los Dolores refers to the seven sorrows of the Virgin. The plural is essential to the sense: it names a specific devotion rather than a general sadness.

How the name formed

  1. Dolores
  2. Delora

Related forms: Dolores · Addolorata

Pronouncing Delora

duh-LOR-uh

Three syllables with the weight in the middle. Spanish gives the parent name three as well, doh-LOH-res, with the stress in the same place.

Nicknames for Delora

Moderate

LoraCut from the back
LolitaThe traditional Spanish familiar form of Dolores, now carrying associations of its own
DeeThe bare opening used as a name
II

What the data says

The long climb, and where it stands now

GIRLS NAMED · 1887–20255628056618872021

US babies named Delora per year from 1887 to 2025
AVERAGE RANK BY DECADE#1#10#100#1000#9231880s2020s

The same years in position rather than babies

First recorded
1887
Most girls named
191756 — the highest on record
Peak rank
#923reached in 1917
Change vs 2007
0.0%6 in 2021, from 6
Delora sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 1917, with 56 girls. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

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.

Delora in other languages

The same name elsewhere

  • Dolores in Spanish — related form
  • Addolorata in Italian — related form

Deloras among us

1,500

people named Delora are estimated to be alive in the US today

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

III

Is it right for you

Fashion outlook

Delora sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.

Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them

The trade-off

Practical strengths
  • Every sound in it is easy in English and the spelling follows the sound.
  • Lora works as a short form and stands alone as a name.
  • The stress in the middle gives it a lift most English names of its length do not have.
What to consider
  • Delora, Deloris and Dolores are all in the record and will be confused.
  • The name behind it means sorrows, which a family may or may not want to know.
  • It reads clearly as a name of the turn of the twentieth century.

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Delora

Feminine

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Frequently asked

How many Deloras are there in the world?
No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Delora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How popular is the name Delora in 2025?
Delora is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
Will my child share the name Delora with classmates?
Delora will almost certainly be the only one in school.

More D names

The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.

Dorothy#421 · Donna#1962 · Deborah#862 · Debra#4460 · Diane#2607 · Doris#2895 · Denise#1673 · Danielle#549

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delora? See the current top 100.

Choosing between Delora and another name?

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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