Delaney
Delaney was given to 1,283 girls in 2025, #242 among girls’ names; 46,650 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 46,000 Americans named Delaney and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 10 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Delaney by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Delaney mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Delaney is “a female given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage.” Its etymology gives the sense “from the alder grove” (aunaie).
From a Norman baronial surname, from a place in France, Old French del aunaie (“from the alder grove”). In Ireland an anglicization of Irish Ó Dubhshláine (descendant of Black (dubh) + Challenge (slán)).
/dɪˈleɪni/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Delaney?
#242 among girls’ names, 2025
Delaney rose from #243 in 2015 to #242 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.74 to 0.80 per 1,000.
2,030 babies in 2004, the peak
Delaney peaked in 2004, when 2,030 babies were given it (2,002 girls, #169 among girls’ names). The 1,295 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 64% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,283 | #242 | 0.80 |
| 2024 | 1,435 | #216 | 0.89 |
| 2023 | 1,287 | #235 | 0.80 |
| 2022 | 1,255 | #244 | 0.77 |
| 2021 | 1,164 | #269 | 0.71 |
| 2020 | 1,024 | #313 | 0.63 |
| 2019 | 1,158 | #286 | 0.69 |
| 2018 | 1,315 | #249 | 0.77 |
| 2017 | 1,266 | #251 | 0.73 |
| 2016 | 1,207 | #263 | 0.68 |
Every recorded year (63)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,328 | #243 | 0.74 |
| 2014 | 1,232 | #268 | 0.69 |
| 2013 | 1,280 | #249 | 0.73 |
| 2012 | 1,260 | #257 | 0.72 |
| 2011 | 1,337 | #237 | 0.76 |
| 2010 | 1,486 | #209 | 0.84 |
| 2009 | 1,388 | #241 | 0.76 |
| 2008 | 1,622 | #210 | 0.86 |
| 2007 | 1,689 | #203 | 0.88 |
| 2006 | 1,815 | #193 | 1.0 |
| 2005 | 1,828 | #190 | 1.0 |
| 2004 | 2,002 | #169 | 1.1 |
| 2003 | 1,856 | #175 | 1.0 |
| 2002 | 1,765 | #181 | 1.0 |
| 2001 | 1,583 | #204 | 0.88 |
| 2000 | 1,538 | #206 | 0.85 |
| 1999 | 1,459 | #214 | 0.82 |
| 1998 | 1,400 | #221 | 0.79 |
| 1997 | 1,120 | #258 | 0.64 |
| 1996 | 1,080 | #265 | 0.62 |
| 1995 | 820 | #328 | 0.47 |
| 1994 | 484 | #516 | 0.27 |
| 1993 | 418 | #570 | 0.23 |
| 1992 | 306 | #704 | 0.17 |
| 1991 | 226 | #876 | 0.12 |
| 1990 | 180 | #1,007 | 0.09 |
| 1989 | 99 | #1,470 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 44 | #2,449 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 28 | #3,268 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 28 | #3,215 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 28 | #3,179 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 22 | #3,634 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 24 | #3,355 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 24 | #3,440 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 25 | #3,362 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 13 | #5,307 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 25 | #3,260 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 20 | #3,658 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 19 | #3,791 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 15 | #4,201 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 21 | #3,299 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 19 | #3,456 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 14 | #4,195 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 15 | #3,936 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 11 | #4,877 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #7,727 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 7 | #5,760 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 8 | #4,966 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #6,789 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 5 | #6,779 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,163 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 7 | #4,840 | under 0.01 |
| 1939 | 5 | #4,387 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Delaney a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 46,650 Americans recorded as Delaney, 97% are girls and 3% boys. In 2025 it went to 1,283 girls and 12 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Delaney: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Delaney, and how old are they?
46,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 46,650 Americans ever recorded as Delaney. The median Delaney alive today is 18 years old; half are between 10 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 37,383 people named Delaney (36,594 women and girls, 789 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 38,900 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 15 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 119 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 380 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 25,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 16,300 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Delaney born?
The states with the most babies named Delaney are Pennsylvania, California and Texas, with 20% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 88 | #116 | 1.6× |
| California | 86 | #384 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 85 | #391 | 0.6× |
| New York | 78 | #221 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 66 | #165 | 1.4× |
| Florida | 62 | #300 | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 49 | #204 | 1.3× |
| North Carolina | 48 | #225 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 45 | #183 | 1.0× |
| New Jersey | 43 | #196 | 0.8× |
Where Delaney is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Delaney is most over-represented in Nebraska: since 1912 it was given 1.7 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Delaney with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 66,052 babies since 1880, Delaney is the most given (71% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,295 of their 1,800 babies (72%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Delaney
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Delaney and names like it
- Compare Delaney and DelanieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sDelaney peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Delaney since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Delaney: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Delaney.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Delaney alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with DMost given first.