Delia

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title: "Delia" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["english-feminine-given-names", "feminine-given-names", "spanish-feminine-given-names", "romanian-feminine-given-names", "epithets-of-artemis", "feminine-hypocorisms"] topic_path: "geography/spain" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox given name"]

Field	Value
name	Delia
image	0013MAN-Woman.jpg
caption	A statue of the Delian-born goddess Artemis, found on the sacred island of Delos
gender	Feminine
meaning	generally "woman from the island of Delos"
related names	Delio (masculine equivalent); Della, Adelia, Bedelia, Cordelia, Fidelia, Odelia
::

| name = Delia | image = 0013MAN-Woman.jpg | image_size = | caption = A statue of the Delian-born goddess Artemis, found on the sacred island of Delos | pronunciation = | gender = Feminine | meaning = generally "woman from the island of Delos" | region = | language = | origin = | alternative spelling = | nickname = | related names = Delio (masculine equivalent); Della, Adelia, Bedelia, Cordelia, Fidelia, Odelia | name day = | derived = | popularity = | footnotes = | wikt = Delia (Della as a diminutive) is a feminine given name either taken from an epithet of the Greek moon goddess Artemis, or else representing a short form of Adelia, Bedelia, Cordelia or Odelia.{{cite web |url=https://www.behindthename.com/name/delia-1 |title=Delia |author= |date= |website=behindthename.com |publisher=behind the name |access-date=2022-08-24 |quote=Means "of Delos" in Greek.}}

Meanings and origins

According to records for the 1901 Irish census, there were 6,260 persons named Delia living that year in all 32 counties of Ireland, with 256 more bearing the full forename Bedelia (plus 59 other persons with the variant spelling Bidelia, and 361 Biddy, 529 Bride and 153984 Bridget). These related names originated as English renderings of the Irish name Brighid (or Bríd) meaning "exalted one", which originally belonged to a pagan fertility goddess (later, to an important medieval saint). ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Tibullus.jpg" caption="[[Lawrence Alma-Tadema]], ''Tibullus at Delia's''"] ::

In most cases, however, the name Delia refers to the tiny Greek island of Delos (), the birthplace of Artemis and her twin brother Apollo, given because they were born on the island of Delos. The name was used by Roman poet Tibullus as the pseudonym of his lover Plania in very popular love poems and thanks to him "Delia" later appeared in several poems of the 16th and 17th centuries, and it has occasionally been used as a given name since that time.

People

Delia Akeley (1869–1970), American explorer
Delia Arnold (born 1986), Malaysian professional squash player
Delia Bacon (1811–1859), American author and Shakespearean scholar
Delia Boccardo (born 1948), Italian actress
Didi Contractor (1929–2021, née Delia Kinzinger), German-American architect
Delia Derbyshire (1937–2001), British musician and composer of electronic music
Delia Ephron (born 1944), American author, screenwriter and playwright
Delia Fiallo (1924–2021), Cuban romance novelist and screenwriter
Delia Garcés (1919–2001), Argentine film actress
Delia Gonzalez (born 1970), American boxer
Delia Green (1886–1900), teenage African-American murder victim, reported inspiration for several traditional blues songs
Delia Grigore (born 1972), Romanian Romani writer, philologist, academic and Romani rights activist
Delia Knox (born 1962), Pastor, Gospel singer/recording artist
Delia de Leon (1901–1993), British actress and disciple of Meher Baba
Delia Opekokew, Cree lawyer and writer
Delia Lawrie (born 1966), Australian politician
Delia Matache (born 1982), Romanian pop singer
Delia Mathews (born 1990), New Zealand-born ballet dancer
Delia Mayer (born 1967), Swiss actress and singer
Deliana Delia Meulenkamp (1933–2013), also known by her married name Delia Dooling, Dutch-born American swimmer
Delia Parodi (1913–1991), Argentine politician
Delia Scala (1929–2004), Italian ballerina and actress
Cordelia Delia Sherman (born 1951), American fantasy writer and editor
Delia Silance (1907–1984), American educator
Delia Smith (born 1941), English celebrity chef and cookery writer
Delia Valeri (1870–1947), American vocal coach
Delia Vaudan, Italian luger who competed from the late 1970s to the early 1990s
Delia Villegas Vorhauer (1940–1992), American, Latina social worker
Delia Webster (1817–1904), American teacher, author, businesswoman and abolitionist
Delia Ramirez (born 1983), American politician and U.S. Representative from Illinois.

Fictional characters

Delia Banks, on the TV show Ghost Whisperer (2005–2010), played by Camryn Manheim
Delia Brown, on the American TV show Everwood (2002–2006), played by Vivien Cardone
Delia Busby, from the television show Call the Midwife
Delia Cahel, from the William Butler Yeats play Cathleen ni Houlihan
Delia Dantes, in Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland's Menagerie book trilogy
Delia Deetz, from the 1988 movie Beetlejuice, played by Catherine O'Hara
Delia Delfano, from the Disney Channel sitcom I Didn't Do It
Delia Jones, the main character in Zora Neal Hurston's short story "Sweat"
Delia Ketchum, from Pokémon, the mother of Ash Ketchum
Delia York, in the made-for-TV movie Omen IV: The Awakening (1991; played by Asia Vieira)
Delia, the romantic interest of the Roman love poet Tibullus's first book
Delia, a player character in the Korean MMO Vindictus
Delia, the main character in Elena Ferrante's novel Troubling Love

References

Kennedy, Duncan F.. (May 2017). "What's In a Name? Delia in Tibullus 1.1". The Classical Quarterly.

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