Deloris
A feminine name of Provençal origin meaning "from Dolore", derived from Virgin Maria Dolorada.
Name Census estimates that about 13,729 living Americans carry the first name Deloris. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Deloris today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Deloris births was 1947 (990 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Deloris. 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 Deloris is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 98 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Deloris is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Deloris' were born before 1963.
People living today
14K
~ 1 in 24,966 Americans
Peak year
1947
990 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
1957 SSA rank
#3,657
Tracked since 1899
Census
Deloris in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 16,931 people with the first name Deloris, which placed it at #1,773 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
#1,773
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
16,931 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Deloris
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Deloris is White at 53.2%. The next largest groups are Black (41.9%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Deloris 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 Deloris at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.2% · 9,004
- Black or African American41.9% · 7,087
- Two or more races2.2% · 374
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 302
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 145
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 19
Gender
Gender distribution for Deloris
Out of the 34,781 babies given the name Deloris since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Deloris as a male name
- Ranked #3,657 in 1957
- 6 male births in 1957
- Peak: 1937 (13 births)
Deloris as a female name
- Ranked #12,566 in 2022
- 7 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1947 (990 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Deloris appears almost entirely female. Of the 16,930 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Deloris: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Deloris from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 9,039 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Deloris 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 Deloris during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Deloris' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. South Carolina, West Virginia, Illinois recorded the most babies named Deloris, while Wyoming, Arizona, Utah recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 794 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Deloris
The name Deloris is derived from the Latin name Dolores, which means "sorrows" or "sufferings." It is closely related to the name Dolores, and is believed to have originated in the late Middle Ages as a reference to the Sorrows of the Virgin Mary in Christian theology.
The earliest recorded use of the name Deloris can be traced back to the 16th century, when it was used as a feminine form of the name Dolores in some regions of Europe, particularly in Spain and Portugal. It is thought that the name may have been influenced by the Spanish and Portuguese devotion to the Virgin Mary and the veneration of her sorrows as depicted in religious art and literature.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Deloris was Deloris Gonzalez, a Spanish noblewoman who lived in the late 16th century. She was noted for her charitable works and her support of religious institutions in her region.
In the 17th century, the name Deloris gained some popularity in parts of France and Italy, possibly due to the influence of Spanish and Portuguese culture in those regions. One notable figure from this period was Deloris de Montfort, a French nun who founded a convent in Paris in the mid-1600s.
As the name spread across Europe, it also found its way to the Americas through Spanish and Portuguese colonization. In the 18th century, there are records of a Deloris Quintana, who was a landowner and philanthropist in colonial Mexico.
In the 19th century, the name Deloris became more widely used in the United States, particularly among families with Spanish or Portuguese heritage. One prominent figure with this name was Deloris Alvarez, an American educator and activist who advocated for the rights of Spanish-speaking communities in the early 20th century.
Another notable individual with the name Deloris was Deloris Jordan, the mother of basketball legend Michael Jordan. She was born in 1938 and played a significant role in supporting and guiding her son's successful career.
People
Deloris + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Deloris 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
Deloris: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Deloris?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,729 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Deloris 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 24,966 US residents.
Is Deloris a common name?
We classify Deloris as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 34,781 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Deloris most popular?
The single biggest year for Deloris was 1947, when 990 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Deloris is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Deloris in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 16,931 people with the name Deloris, or 5.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,773 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 Deloris 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 Deloris?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Deloris appears almost entirely female. Of the 16,930 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Deloris?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Deloris is White at 53.2%. The next largest groups are Black (41.9%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Deloris most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Deloris in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.2% (9,004 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 Deloris in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Deloris a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Deloris 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 Deloris still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Deloris 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 Deloris 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 Americans are named Deloris?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.