Delwyn
Of Welsh origin meaning "from the beautiful grove".
Name Census estimates that about 574 living Americans carry the first name Delwyn. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Delwyn today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Delwyn births was 1959 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Delwyn. 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 Delwyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
574
~ 1 in 597,133 Americans
Peak year
1959
28 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2014 SSA rank
#8,973
Tracked since 1917
Census
Delwyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 635 people with the first name Delwyn, which placed it at #17,398 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
#17,398
National first-name rank
People counted
635
635 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Delwyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delwyn is White at 66.1%. The next largest groups are Black (21.1%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Delwyn 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 Delwyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.1% · 420
- Black or African American21.1% · 134
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.0% · 19
- Two or more races2.5% · 16
Popularity
Delwyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Delwyn from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 158 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Delwyn 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 Delwyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Delwyns live
Origin
Meaning and history of Delwyn
The name Delwyn finds its origins in the Welsh language and culture, emerging around the 12th century. It is a compound name derived from the Welsh elements "del," meaning "pretty" or "beautiful," and "wyn," which means "white" or "fair." Consequently, the name Delwyn can be interpreted to mean "beautiful and fair" or "pretty and white."
Historical records suggest that the name Delwyn was initially used as a unisex name in Wales, although it eventually became more commonly associated with males. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the "Brut y Tywysogion" (Chronicle of the Princes), a medieval Welsh chronicle dating back to the late 13th century, where a person named Delwyn ap Rhys is mentioned.
In the 15th century, a Welsh poet and grammarian named Delwyn ap Gwilym gained recognition for his contributions to the preservation and promotion of the Welsh language and literature. He was born around 1420 and is believed to have lived until the late 15th century.
Another notable figure bearing the name Delwyn was Delwyn Williams, a Welsh rugby union player who represented Wales in the 1920s and 1930s. He was born in 1905 and played as a fullback for his national team, earning 16 caps between 1927 and 1934.
In the realm of literature, Delwyn Kydd was an American author and poet who wrote extensively about the experiences of Native Americans. He was born in 1920 and published several notable works, including "The Rez Road Follies" and "Waking the Blues: New and Selected Poems."
Delwyn M. Brown, born in 1920, was a prominent American engineer and inventor. He is best known for his contributions to the development of the first successful cardiac pacemaker, which revolutionized the treatment of heart conditions and saved countless lives.
While the name Delwyn has Welsh roots and was more commonly used in Wales in the past, it has since gained popularity in other parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries with Welsh heritage or influence.
People
Delwyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Delwyn 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
Delwyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Delwyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 574 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Delwyn 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 597,133 US residents.
Is Delwyn a common name?
We classify Delwyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 913 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Delwyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Delwyn was 1959, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Delwyn is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Delwyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 635 people with the name Delwyn, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,398 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 Delwyn 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 Delwyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Delwyn leans strongly male. 600 people counted with this name were male (94.6%), compared with 34 female bearers (5.4%). 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 Delwyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Delwyn is White at 66.1%. The next largest groups are Black (21.1%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Delwyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Delwyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.1% (420 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 Delwyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Delwyn a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Delwyn in the SSA data are male. 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 Delwyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Delwyn 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 Delwyn 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 common is the name Delwyn?
See how many Americans are named Delwyn on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.