View source for Delia

{{other uses}}
{{Infobox given name
| name          = Delia
| image         = 0013MAN-Woman.jpg
| image_size    =
| caption       = A statue of the [[Delos|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 = [[Apollo#Greco-Roman epithets|Delio]] (masculine equivalent); Adelia, Bedelia, [[Cordelia]], [[Fidelia (given name)|Fidelia]], Odelia
| name day      =
| derived       =
| popularity    =
| footnotes     =
| wikt          =
}}
'''Delia''' is a feminine [[given name]], either taken from an [[epithet]] of the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] [[moon goddess]] [[Artemis]], or else representing a [[Abbreviation|short form]] of ''[[Adela (name)|Adelia]]'', ''[[Bridget (given name)|Bedelia]]'', ''[[Cordelia]]'' or ''[[Odilia|Odelia]]''.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.behindthename.com/name/delia-1
|title=Delia
|author=<!--not-stated-->
|date=
|website=behindthename.com
|publisher=behind the name
|access-date=2022-08-24
|quote=Means "of Delos" in Greek.}}</ref>
==Meanings and origins==
According to records for the 1901 [[Ireland|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 [[Anglicisation of names|English rendering]]s of the [[List of Irish-language given names|Irish name]] ''Brighid'' (or ''Bríd'') meaning "exalted one", which originally belonged to a pagan [[Brigid|fertility goddess]] (later, to an important [[Brigit of Kildare|medieval saint]]).
[[File:Tibullus.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Lawrence Alma-Tadema]], ''Tibullus at Delia's'']]
In most cases, however, the name Delia refers to the tiny [[Greek island]] of [[Delos]] ({{langx|grc|[[wikt:Δῆλος#Ancient Greek|Δῆλος]]}}), the [[Birth of Artemis and Apollo|birth]]place 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<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kennedy |first=Duncan F. |date=May 2017 |title=What's In a Name? Delia in Tibullus 1.1 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/classical-quarterly/article/abs/whats-in-a-name-delia-in-tibullus-11/6FB77A1F723C9D895BAB206221D73CD2 |journal=The Classical Quarterly |language=en |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=193–198 |doi=10.1017/S0009838817000118 |s2cid=171924992 |issn=0009-8388}}</ref> 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
*[https://www.al.com/live/2010/09/miracle_in_mobile_singer_delia.html 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 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 [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]] from [[Illinois]].
==Fictional characters==
* [[Delia Brown]], on the American TV show ''[[Everwood]]'' (2002–2006; played by [[Vivien Cardone]])
* [[Delia Banks]], on the TV show ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'' (2005–2010; played by [[Camryn Manheim]])
* Delia Busby, from the television show ''[[Call the Midwife]]''
* Delia Cahel, from the [[William Butler Yeats]] play ''[[Cathleen ni Houlihan]]''
* Delia Deetz, from the 1988 movie ''[[Beetlejuice]]'', played by [[Catherine O'Hara]]
* Delia Delfano, from the [[Disney Channel]] sitcom ''[[I Didn't Do It (TV series)|I Didn't Do It]]''.
* [[Delia Ketchum]] from ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'', the mother of [[Ash Ketchum]]
* Delia Dantes, in [[Tui T. Sutherland]] and Kari Sutherland's ''Menagerie'' book trilogy
* Delia York, in the made-for-TV movie ''[[Omen IV: The Awakening]]'' (1991; played by [[Asia Vieira]])
* Delia Jones, the main character in [[Zora Neal Hurston]]'s short story ''[[Sweat (short story)|Sweat]]''
* Delia, a player character in the Korean MMO ''[[Vindictus]]''.
* Delia DeLions, protagonist in Grateful Dead song "Stagger Lee"
* Delia Abott, on the TV Soap Opera ''[[The Young & The Restless]]''
* Delia, the romantic interest of the Roman love poet [[Tibullus]]'s first book.
* Delia, the main character in [[Elena Ferrante]]'s [[Troubling Love (novel)|Troubling Love]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*{{Commonscatinline|Delia (mythology)}}
{{given name}}
[[Category:English feminine given names]]
[[Category:Spanish feminine given names]]
[[Category:Romanian feminine given names]]
[[Category:Epithets of Artemis]]
[[Category:Feminine hypocorisms]]