Delyla
Feminine
Delyla is Delilah with the vowels rewritten, and Delilah is one of the most morally loaded names in the Hebrew Bible — the woman who cuts Samson's hair and hands him to the Philistines. Its modern American revival is one of the clearer examples of a name outrunning its story. Delyla's peak is 2008.
How old is the name Delyla?
Delyla first appears in US birth records in 1984 — 41 years ago. The typical Delyla alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 700 people named Delyla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Delyla most popular?
Delyla peaked in 2008, reaching #3710 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 2,406 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Where it comes from
From Delilah to Delyla
The story of Delyla
The Samson narrative in Judges 16 is one of the best-known stories in the Hebrew Bible and Delilah is its antagonist. That kept the name almost entirely out of use in Christian Europe for centuries — parents did not name daughters after her. American use began quietly in the nineteenth century, largely in the South, and rose sharply after 2000, reaching the top hundred by 2020. Whether that reflects a change in how the story is read, a preference for the sound over the reference, or simply the passage of enough time, the record does not say. The respellings, including this one, follow the rise.
Meaningscholars disagree
possibly 'delicate' or 'of the night'
Hebrew Delilah has been read several ways. A connection to dalal, 'to be weak, to languish', gives 'delicate' or 'feeble'. A connection to layla, 'night', gives 'of the night', which is attractive given that Samson's name relates to the sun — a sun-hero undone by night. A third reading takes it from a root meaning to flirt. None is decisive, and the Samson-and-night reading is a modern scholarly suggestion rather than an ancient one.
How the name formed
- Delilah
- Delyla
Related forms: Delilah · Delila · Dalila
Pronouncing Delyla
duh-LY-luh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with the long i of file. Identical to Delilah; the y and the dropped h change nothing about the sound.
Nicknames for Delyla
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
- 1984
- Most girls named
- 200843 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3710reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- −5.0%19 in 2025, from 20
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.
Delyla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Delilah in English — spelling variant
- Delila in Hebrew — related form
- Dalila in Spanish — related form
Delylas among us
people named Delyla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Delyla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Delyla
- #6116
- Delyla on the 2025 chart
- #58
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Delyla went to 19 girls in 2025, but Delilah, Delylah and Delila are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 4,267, which makes it the 58th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,058 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 377 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 84,593 for Delyla itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Felissa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Delyla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Felissa climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Felissa's path sketches the road Delyla is walking now.
Delyla 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
Delyla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Delyla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Lyla and Lila are both popular names available inside it as short forms.
- The sound is entirely familiar, so only the spelling is unusual.
- The Hebrew name has a genuinely ancient and much-argued etymology.
- It will be corrected to Delilah by essentially everyone writing it down.
- The biblical figure is an antagonist, and people over a certain age will mention it.
- The meaning is genuinely contested with no settled answer.
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Delyla
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Delylas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Delyla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Delyla?
- Delyla is one of 4 recorded spellings. Delilah is the more common one — 4,137 births in 2025 against 19 for Delyla.
- How popular is the name Delyla in 2025?
- Delyla ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Delyla?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Delyla — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Delyla with classmates?
- Delyla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Delyla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Delyla? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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