Delois
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly derived from the French "de l'oise" meaning "of the river".
Name Census estimates that about 4,176 living Americans carry the first name Delois. It is a predominantly female name (98.6% of registrations). The average person named Delois today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Delois births was 1948 (321 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Delois. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Delois is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 122 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Delois is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Delois' were born before 1964.
People living today
4.2K
~ 1 in 82,077 Americans
Peak year
1948
321 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1945 SSA rank
#3,074
Tracked since 1912
Census
Delois in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,273 people with the first name Delois, which placed it at #4,396 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
#4,396
National first-name rank
People counted
4.3K
4,273 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
76.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Delois
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delois is Black at 76.0%. The next largest groups are White (20.7%) and Two or More Races (1.9%). 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 Delois 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 Delois at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American76.0% · 3,249
- White20.7% · 883
- Two or more races1.9% · 82
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 22
Gender
Gender distribution for Delois
Delois leans heavily female at 98.6% of total registrations, but 122 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Delois as a male name
- Ranked #3,074 in 1945
- 6 male births in 1945
- Peak: 1921 (9 births)
Delois as a female name
- Ranked #11,691 in 1999
- 7 female births in 1999
- Peak: 1948 (321 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Delois appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,275 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Delois: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Delois from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 2,513 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Delois 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 Delois during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Delois' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi recorded the most babies named Delois, while West Virginia, New York, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 324 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Delois
The name Delois is of French origin, derived from the Old French name Lois, which is a feminine form of the name Louis. The name Louis is believed to have originated from the Old Frankish name Chlodovech, which means "famous warrior" or "famous battle."
Delois is a variant spelling of the name Delphine, which is also of French origin and is derived from the Greek name Delphine, meaning "dolphin." The name Delphine was popular in ancient Greece and was associated with the city of Delphi, a sacred site in Greek mythology.
The earliest recorded use of the name Delois dates back to the 12th century in France. It was particularly popular among the French nobility during the Middle Ages. One notable historical figure with this name was Delois de Boulogne, a French noblewoman who lived in the 13th century.
In the 16th century, the name Delois gained popularity in England, where it was sometimes spelled as Delores or Deloris. One famous bearer of this name was Deloris Clements, an English writer and poet who lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the late 16th century.
During the Renaissance period, the name Delois was also used in Italy, where it was sometimes spelled as Deloisa or Deloisia. One notable Italian bearer of this name was Deloisa Veneziano, a renowned painter and sculptor who lived in the 15th century.
In the 18th century, the name Delois gained popularity in Germany, where it was sometimes spelled as Deloise or Deloiza. One famous German bearer of this name was Deloise von Goethe, a writer and philosopher who was the sister of the renowned poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
In the 19th century, the name Delois became popular in the United States, particularly in the southern states. One notable American bearer of this name was Delois Blakely, a Civil War nurse who served in the Confederate army during the American Civil War in the 1860s.
People
Delois + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Delois 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
Delois: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Delois?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,176 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Delois 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 82,077 US residents.
Is Delois a common name?
We classify Delois as "Rare". It ranks above 96.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,622 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Delois most popular?
The single biggest year for Delois was 1948, when 321 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Delois is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Delois in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,273 people with the name Delois, or 1.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,396 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 Delois 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 Delois?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Delois appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,275 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Delois?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delois is Black at 76.0%. The next largest groups are White (20.7%) and Two or More Races (1.9%). 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 Delois most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Delois in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.0% (3,249 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 Delois in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Delois a female name?
Yes, 98.6% of people registered as Delois 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 Delois still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Delois 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 Delois 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 Delois as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.