MEANING & HISTORY
What does Delilah mean?
Delilah comes from Hebrew Delilah, traditionally associated with delicate, weak or languishing. The biblical character’s role in Samson’s story has encouraged further wordplay, but she who weakened is not the only literal grammatical account of the name.
Its literary associations should be separated from the linguistic root and from assumptions about a modern bearer.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
Borrowed from Hebrew דְּלִילָה (d'līla, “[she who] weakened”).
A female given name from Hebrew of Biblical origin.
Wiktionary: Delilah (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Delilah
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Pilar Pilapil
Filipino actress and model (born 1950)
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Wikidata
1
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Pilar Pilapil
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Delilah in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Delilah
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Delia♀Of Delos
- Deborah♀Bee
- Delfina♀Form of Delphina; of Delphi
- Deling♀Familiar form of Delia or Cordelia
- Delio♂Cebuano short form of Rodelio
- Delma·Familiar form of Adelma or Fidelma
- Delmar♂Of the sea; a separate surname route also exists
- Denisa·Feminine name in the Dionysus name family
What rhymes with Delilah?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Delilah further
Follow the sources
- Wikidata given-name item Q56027794 — Delilah (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Pilar Pilapil (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q56027794 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Delilah (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary: Delilah (opens in a new tab)
Personal-name formation and etymological relationships; imported dictionary account consulted.
- Behind the Name: delilah (opens in a new tab)
Independent onomastic comparison and qualifications to the proposed origin.