Delores
Feminine · “sorrows”
Delores is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 117,821 girls against 430 boys since 1880.
Delores is one of the sorrow names — Spanish devotional titles for the Virgin Mary that became given names. The full form is María de los Dolores, Mary of the Sorrows, and the daughter was named for the title rather than for the woman.
How old is the name Delores?
Delores first appears in US birth records in 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Delores alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 57,000 people named Delores are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delores most popular?
Delores peaked in 1934, reaching #51 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 5,671 places below that high. See the whole 1934 chart.
Delores appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From dolores to Delores
The story of Delores
Spanish Catholic naming built a whole family of women's names out of Marian titles — Mercedes for mercies, Consuelo for consolation, Soledad for solitude, Dolores for sorrows — each of them a phrase reduced to its distinctive noun. Dolores traveled into American English through Spanish-speaking communities and then, in the early twentieth century, spread far beyond them. The Delores spelling is the anglicized one, and it peaked in the 1930s alongside the original.
Meaning
sorrows
From the Spanish dolores, 'sorrows', the plural of dolor. It refers to the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin, a devotion with its own feast day, and the name is a shortening of the full Marian title rather than a description of anyone. Delores is the American respelling of Dolores.
How the name formed
- dolores
- María de los Dolores
- Dolores
- Delores
Related forms: Dolores · Lola · Addolorata · Deloris
Pronouncing Delores
duh-LOR-iss
Three syllables, stress on the middle. Spanish speakers say doh-LOH-res with a fuller final syllable.
Nicknames for Delores
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
- 1890
- Most girls named
- 19314,050 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #51reached in 1934
- Change vs 2022
- +61.5%21 in 2025, from 13
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.
Delores in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dolores in Spanish — same name
- Lola in Spanish — related form
- Addolorata in Italian — related form
- Deloris in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Missouri.
Deloress among us
people named Delores are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Delores
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 Anne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Delores's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Anne climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Anne's path sketches the road Delores is walking now.
Delores 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
Delores beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Delores in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It belongs to a documented family of Spanish devotional names with a clear and unusual origin.
- Lola and Dee are two short forms at completely different registers.
- The name is recognized in both English and Spanish-speaking countries.
- The literal meaning is 'sorrows', and families who want a bright meaning should know that first.
- Dolores, Delores and Deloris are all in American use, so the spelling has to be given.
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What they receive
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Delores
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Deloress are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 57,000 people named Delores are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Delores in 2025?
- Delores ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Delores?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Delores — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Delores with classmates?
- Delores will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Delores
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Jameson#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delores? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Delores and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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