Delilah

given name · Latin script

Meaning: The name is commonly derived from the Hebrew root 'dalal' (דָּלַל), meaning 'to hang down', 'be low', or 'languish', suggesting meanings such as 'Delicate', 'Dainty', or 'Weak'

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Delilah is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • USUnited States1 in 9.9K(measured from records)
  • PHPhilippines≈1 in 24K
  • CACanada≈1 in 49K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

United States (measured from records)

33,704 people, 2020

Sources
367 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 9.9K (inferred from the name graph)

United States

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

The name is commonly derived from the Hebrew root 'dalal' (דָּלַל), meaning 'to hang down', 'be low', or 'languish', suggesting meanings such as 'Delicate', 'Dainty', or 'Weak'. Rabbinic tradition interprets the name as 'She who dwindles', implying she diminished Samson's strength and spiritual standing.

Sources 1

  • Biblical Names Compiled Database

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Delilah counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Delilah is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States33,7041 in 9.9K34KDelilah367
PH Philippines≈4,500 est.≈1 in 24K—Delilah54
GB United Kingdom≈930 est.≈1 in 71K1.2KDelilah109
CA Canada≈780 est.≈1 in 49K35Delilah78
NL Netherlands5441 in 32K544Delilah23
NZ New Zealand≈110 est.≈1 in 47K51Delilah24
GY Guyana171 in 44K17—2

33,704 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Delilah is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Indonesian given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Ďelilah

57 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Delilah is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • A name of Hebrew origin meaning 'delicate' or 'night'; despite its strong biblical association with betrayal, it has become a popular modern name appreciated for its melodic sound.

    as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database

  • In Jewish and Christian tradition, Delilah serves as a cautionary archetype of the treacherous woman and the dangers of compromising one's spiritual vows for worldly affection or material gain. She is often contrasted with virtuous biblical women and is cited by early church fathers as a warning against intermarriage with pagans and the spiritual peril of lust.

    as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database

  • In English, Hebrew; the lover of Samson in the Bible

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • In English, The mistress of Samson who betrayed him to the Philistines.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In English, Biblical name

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1850190019502000Delilah L. Beasley, b. 1871Pilar Pilapil, b. 1950Delilah Montoya, b. 1955Delilah Freddy Puruntatameri, b. 1968Delilah Cotto, b. 1970Delilah S. Dawson, b. 1977Delilah DiCrescenzo, b. 1983Delilah Holliday, b. 1996Delilah Day, b. 1998

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 55 sources across 29 countries.

Official registers attesting Delilah
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202034K#1,171
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20254.1K—
GB United KingdomONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024)20241.2K#33
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018)—544#1,905
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017)—318#4,195
CA CanadaStatistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01)2024198—
CA CanadaStatistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01)2023198—
CA CanadaStatistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01)2021186—
CA CanadaStatistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01)2022173—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202053#1,171
NZ New ZealandDIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present)202551—
CA CanadaAlberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender202435#109

Reference works 3

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What are other forms of the name Delilah?
In the etymology graph, Dalila and Delila are forms of the same name in other languages.
Is Delilah a male or female name?
Delilah is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Delilah mean, and where does it come from?
The name is commonly derived from the Hebrew root 'dalal' (דָּלַל), meaning 'to hang down', 'be low', or 'languish', suggesting meanings such as 'Delicate', 'Dainty', or 'Weak'. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
How common is the name Delilah?
In the United States, the national register counted 33,704 people named Delilah in 2020, about 1 in 9.9 thousand residents.
In which country does Delilah have the most bearers?
In the United States, the national register counted about 34 thousand people named Delilah, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled delilah.
Where is Delilah most common?
Delilah is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 9.9 thousand people carrying it.

What do you want to know about Delilah?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/delilah

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Delilah”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Delilah parses inside a full name →