Delaney
From Irish, meaning "descendant of the challenger" or "defiant".
Name Census estimates that about 44,538 living Americans carry the first name Delaney. It sits at #216 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly female name (97.4% of registrations). The average person named Delaney today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Delaney births was 2004 (2,030 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Delaney. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Delaney with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Delaney started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Although Delaney is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,201 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
45K
~ 1 in 7,696 Americans
Peak year
2004
2,030 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#216
Tracked since 1912
Census
Delaney in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 37,387 people with the first name Delaney, which placed it at #1,107 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,107
National first-name rank
People counted
37K
37,387 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
12.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Delaney
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delaney is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.2%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Delaney described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Delaney at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.0% · 31,391
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 2,705
- Two or more races4.8% · 1,793
- Black or African American2.6% · 968
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 325
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 205
Gender
Gender distribution for Delaney
Delaney leans heavily female at 97.4% of total registrations, but 1,201 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Delaney as a male name
- Ranked #9,169 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1999 (32 births)
Delaney as a female name
- Ranked #216 in 2024
- 1,432 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (2,002 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Delaney leans strongly female. 36,594 people counted with this name were female (97.9%), compared with 789 male bearers (2.1%).
Popularity
Delaney: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Delaney from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 17,278 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Delaney remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Delaney by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Delaney during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Delaneys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, Texas recorded the most babies named Delaney, while Vermont, Wyoming, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 858 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Delaney
The given name Delaney is an anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Duiléanaigh, which itself derives from the Irish word duiléanach, meaning "descendant of the challenger." The name has its origins in ancient Ireland, and it was common among families in County Cork and surrounding areas.
In its earliest recorded usage, the name appeared in Irish manuscripts and genealogical records from the 11th century onwards. These documents traced the lineages of prominent Irish clans and recorded the names of notable individuals within those families.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Delaney of Leinster, a 12th-century Irish chieftain who played a role in the Norman invasion of Ireland. His descendants continued to use the name, and it became associated with the territory they controlled in the southeastern region of the island.
During the Middle Ages, the name Delaney was also found in various religious texts and records kept by monasteries and abbeys throughout Ireland. Several monks and clergymen bore this name, reflecting its widespread use among the Irish population at the time.
As the name spread beyond Ireland, it encountered various spellings and adaptations. In England, for instance, it was sometimes rendered as Delany or Delaney. This anglicized version gained popularity during the 18th and 19th centuries, as Irish immigrants brought the name to English-speaking countries.
One notable bearer of the name was Mary Delany (1700-1788), an English artist and author who is renowned for her intricate botanical paper mosaics. Another was Michael Delany (1696-1768), an Irish prelate who served as the Bishop of Down and Connor.
In the United States, one of the earliest recorded individuals with the name was Daniel Delaney (1775-1856), a farmer and politician who served as a member of the Massachusetts General Court in the early 19th century.
Other notable individuals named Delaney include Dana Delaney (born 1956), an American actress known for her roles in television series like "China Beach" and "Desperate Housewives"; and Martin Delany (1812-1885), an African-American abolitionist, writer, and physician who was a prominent figure in the anti-slavery movement.
People
Delaney + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Delaney as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Delaney: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Delaney?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 44,538 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Delaney going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 7,696 US residents.
Is Delaney a common name?
We classify Delaney as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 45,354 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Delaney most popular?
The single biggest year for Delaney was 2004, when 2,030 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Delaney is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Delaney in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 37,387 people with the name Delaney, or 12.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,107 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Delaney in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Delaney?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Delaney leans strongly female. 36,594 people counted with this name were female (97.9%), compared with 789 male bearers (2.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Delaney?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delaney is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.2%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Delaney most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Delaney in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.0% (31,391 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Delaney in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Delaney a female name?
Yes, 97.4% of people registered as Delaney in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Delaney still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Delaney in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Delaney can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Delaney?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.