Delilah sounds like a melody before anyone sings it: three soft syllables, two liquid L sounds, an open ending. For most of the last century parents skipped it because of the Old Testament story attached to it. That hesitation is gone. Delilah ranked 51st among US girls’ names in the latest Social Security Administration tally, one place off the best rank it has ever held.
The dictionary sense points to delicate, but no one-word gloss holds everything this name carries. It runs from a single chapter of the Book of Judges to a Plain White T’s single that outlived its own decade, so nearly everyone recognizes it while very few classrooms hold two of them.
Verdict: Delilah is a strong choice for a baby born in 2026. It has the old-fashioned warmth parents are reaching for right now, it is spelled correctly on the first try, and it yields at least seven workable short forms: Dee, Della, Lila, Lily, Lilah, Del, and Lah-Lah.
Delilah Overview
- Meaning: Often glossed as delicate, though the Hebrew root more literally reads weak or brought low.
- Gender: Female.
- Origin: Hebrew, with a debated Arabic thread.
- Pronunciation: duh-LIE-luh in English, deh-lee-LAW in Hebrew.
- Popularity: 51st for US girls in 2025, and half of every Delilah in the federal records had been born by 2016.
- Nicknames: Dee, Della, Lila, Lily, Lilah, Del, Lah-Lah.
- Variations: Dalila, Dalida, Delila, Dylilah.
- Namesakes: Delilah Rene (radio host), Delilah DiCrescenzo (steeplechase runner), Delilah S. Dawson (author), Delilah Belle Hamlin (model), Delilah Cotto (actress).
What Does Delilah Mean?
Delilah is commonly glossed as delicate, though the more literal readings of the Hebrew root run to weak, languishing, or brought low. The name is built on the root dalal, which carries the sense of hanging down, thinning out, or being made low, and Strong’s Hebrew lexicon files the name under exactly that root (1).
That literal sense is not what parents are choosing. Read the root as a picture rather than a verdict and it describes something fine and light, delicate the way a petal or a strand of hair is delicate, which is much closer to how the name lands on a birth announcement today.
There is a second layer worth knowing. Because the Samson story turns on hair and on sleep, readers have long noticed how closely the name echoes laylah, the Hebrew word for night, which is why you will sometimes see night listed as a secondary gloss. Whether the writer of Judges intended the echo is unknowable, so treat it as a resonance rather than a definition.
Where Does the Name Delilah Come From?
Delilah comes from the Hebrew Bible and appears in exactly one chapter of it. As a name of Hebrew origin, it belongs to the woman in the Valley of Sorek whom Samson loved, and she is the only woman in his entire story who is given a name at all (2).
The account in Judges 16 is short and brutal. Philistine leaders paid her to find out where Samson’s strength came from. He admitted it lay in his uncut hair, and she had his head shaved while he slept.
There is also a commonly cited case for an Arabic origin thread, though it rests on tradition rather than a documented source. In Arabic, dalla is said to mean to act amorously or flirtatiously, while Dalila is sometimes given as a word for a guide or a proof, pulling the name in almost the opposite direction from the Hebrew reading.
For centuries that Judges account made the name unusable in Christian households, and it has been climbing back toward the mainstream ever since.
How Popular Is the Name Delilah?
Delilah ranked 51st among US girls’ names in 2025 and 50th in 2024, the highest it has ever placed in 146 years of federal birth records (3).
The birth counts say the same thing. 4,254 girls were named Delilah in 2024, the largest single year on record, and 4,137 followed in 2025, per Social Security Administration data. Across the whole file 66,683 girls have carried the name, and in the latest year about one in every 389 newborn girls received it.
The curve is young. Half of every Delilah in the records had been born by 2016, so on the data as a whole this is a 2010s and 2020s name rather than an inherited one. That is unusual for a name this old, and it is the clearest sign of how completely the modern revival rewrote the name’s history.
It also never actually vanished. Delilah appears in every one of the 146 years the federal data covers, going back to 1880, including the long stretch when it sat far down the list. What changed was not whether parents knew the name but whether they felt free to use it.
For a parent choosing today, 51st is a comfortable place to sit: recognized instantly, spelled correctly by most people, and still uncommon enough that a Delilah will rarely share her name with a classmate. The trend is upward, though, so plan for it to feel a little more common each year rather than less.
How Do I Pronounce Delilah?
Delilah is said duh-LIE-luh in English, three syllables with the stress in the middle and a long I. The first syllable is a soft, unstressed duh rather than a crisp dee, which is the one detail people get wrong when they read it before they hear it.
In Hebrew the stress moves to the end and the vowels shift, giving deh-lee-LAW. Unless you are speaking Hebrew, the English version is what everyone will expect. Spelling holds up just as well: the h ending is standard, so the name rarely comes back misspelled.
Is Delilah a Boy or Girl Name?
Delilah is a girls’ name in the United States, and the federal data carries no boys’ entry for it at all. The Social Security Administration only publishes a name for a given sex once at least five babies receive it in a single year, so any boys named Delilah have stayed under that floor in every year on record.
If the sound is what appeals for a son, the closest matches are Elijah, which shares both the L and the final syllable, or Dylan and Lyle, which pick up the L without the Biblical story.
What Are the Variations of Delilah?
The main variations are Dalila, Dalida, Delila, and Dylilah, and each one travels with a different language.
- Dalila: The standard spelling in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and several Slavic languages.
- Dalida: A form found in France and Greece.
- Delila: A simplified English spelling, though the h ending is far more common in the US.
- Dylilah: A rare modern American respelling.
What Are the Best Nicknames for Delilah?
Dee, Della, Lila, and Lily are the nicknames Delilah gives up most easily, with Lilah, Del, and Lah-Lah covering the rarer end. That range matters more than it sounds: a Delilah can be Dee at soccer practice and Delilah on a diploma without either one feeling like a stretch.
Common Nicknames:
- Dee: Simple and quick to say.
- Della: A vintage name in its own right that doubles as a short form.
- Lila: Pulls the romantic middle of the name out on its own.
- Lily: A floral spin that barely changes the sound.
Creative & Rare Nicknames:
- Lilah: A spelling that reads as its own name rather than a shortening.
- Lah-Lah: A sing-song option most toddlers land on by themselves.
- Del: Short, flat, and unfussy.
What Names Are Similar to Delilah?
The nearest matches by sound are Dahlia, Tallulah, Layla, and Lorelei, all of which repeat the liquid L that makes Delilah work. The rest of this list trades on the same vintage-romantic register, some of it without the Biblical history.
- Dahlia: The closest twin: same D opening, same L in the middle, plus the flower connection people already hear in Delilah.
- Tallulah: A Choctaw and Irish name with the same repeating L cadence and the same three-syllable bounce.
- Layla: Arabic for night, which puts it in the same sound family and, oddly, the same secondary meaning.
- Amaya: Flowing and vowel-heavy, for parents who want the softness without the L.
- Ophelia: Another beautiful name with a tragic literary history that modern parents have reclaimed.
- Deborah: The other major woman in the Book of Judges, though it reads mid-century rather than vintage.
- Lorelei: A German name with the same dangerous-beauty backstory and the same L-heavy rhythm.
- Nadia: Short, elegant, and read by some as delicate, which puts it close in meaning if not in sound.
Which Names Rose and Fell With Delilah?
Six names have moved almost exactly the way Delilah moved. We set Delilah’s year-by-year birth counts against the other girls’ names of the last 45 years and kept the ones whose curve tracks it most closely, so this is a list about timing and taste, not about sound. The three closest are the ones drawn in the chart.
- Violet: The strongest match and by far the biggest name in the group. Violet ranked 13th in 2025, which is both its best rank and its peak year, and it is still rising.
- Matilda: A much older curve. Matilda was already 230th in 1913, the first year of comparable data, peaked in 1915, and sits at 365th in 2025 on a rising trend.
- Myla: The modern one. Myla reached its best rank of 181st in 2023 and stood at 210th in 2025, still rising.
- Olive: Not drawn in the chart. Olive’s best rank was 123rd in 1915, and it stood at 197th in 2025, rising.
- Dahlia: Not drawn in the chart. Dahlia hit its best rank of 215th in 2025, which is also its peak year, and it is rising.
- Evie: Not drawn in the chart. Evie’s best rank was 266th in 2023, and it stood at 270th in 2025, rising.
Every name here is climbing, which is the useful part. Parents drawn to Delilah are reaching for the same category of name, so a sibling set built from this group will sound of a piece rather than assembled.
What Middle Names Go With Delilah?
Short middle names work best with Delilah. Three syllables and a strong middle stress leave little room for a second long name, so the pairings below lean one and two syllables.
Short & Sweet
These one-syllable names keep the full name from becoming a mouthful.
Classic Elegance
A traditional French or English middle name sharpens the formal side of Delilah.
Nature Inspired
These lean into the garden feeling people already hear in the name.
- Delilah Fern
- Delilah Hazel
- Delilah Ivy
- Delilah Daisy
- Delilah Willow
What Sibling Names Go With Delilah?
Names with the same vintage or Biblical register sit best next to Delilah. The sister list below leans on names whose popularity has risen on the same schedule, which is why they read as a matched set rather than a coincidence.
For a Brother
- David: A classic Biblical king that stands steady next to Delilah.
- Elijah: Shares the L and the final syllable, which makes the pair unusually cohesive.
- Gideon: Another figure from the Book of Judges, and still underused.
- Jasper: A vintage stone name that matches Delilah’s age.
- Levi: Soft, Biblical, and firmly in the current era.
- Wyatt: Brings out the Southern side of the name.
For a Sister
- Violet: The name whose rise tracks Delilah’s most closely, and a much more prominent one at 13th in 2025.
- Matilda: An older name climbing again on the same curve, at 365th in 2025.
- Diana: Royal and mythological, and formal enough to balance Delilah.
- Lorelai: Matches the rhythm and the L-heaviness almost exactly.
- Penelope: A Greek classic with the same syllable count and grandeur.
- Rachel: A gentle Biblical pairing from a calmer part of the story.
- Stella: Short, punchy, and vintage, which keeps the sibset from sounding uniform.
Who Are Famous People Named Delilah?
The best known Delilahs are the radio host Delilah Rene, the distance runner Delilah DiCrescenzo, and the novelist Delilah S. Dawson.
- Delilah Rene: Known on air by her first name alone, she hosts a nationally syndicated nightly request and dedication show that NPR has put at roughly 8 million listeners.
- Delilah DiCrescenzo: A Columbia University steeplechase runner who earned All-American honors and three Ivy League Heptagonal titles, and the woman “Hey There Delilah” was written about.
- Delilah S. Dawson: A New York Times bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction, including “Star Wars” novels.
- Delilah Belle Hamlin: A model and influencer, and the daughter of actors Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna.
- Delilah Cotto: An actress known for her role in “Empire.”
Where Does Delilah Appear in Pop Culture?
Delilah turns up in Hey There Delilah, Tom Jones’s 1968 single, DeMille’s Samson and Delilah, Critical Role, and NCIS. The name’s recovery tracks its pop-culture run, and the entries below trace both the revival and the older image it had to overcome.
- “Hey There Delilah”: The Plain White T’s hit, written by frontman Tom Higgenson after meeting Delilah DiCrescenzo through a mutual friend. They never dated, and he told her upfront that he was writing her a song. “She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen,” he told USA Today in 2007 (4).
- “Delilah”: Tom Jones’s 1968 hit, whose lyrics tell a far darker story of jealousy.
- Samson and Delilah (1949): The Cecil B. DeMille epic starring Hedy Lamarr, which fixed the Hollywood image of the character for a generation.
- Delilah Briarwood: A memorable antagonist in “Critical Role” and “The Legend of Vox Machina.”
- Delilah Fielding: A character in the “NCIS” franchise, proving the name reads fine on a modern professional.
