Delphine is the French form of the Latin Delphina — from the Greek delphys ("womb") or the dolphin (the sacred animal of Apollo) and the oracle at Delphi. A top-1000 US baby name in the early 20th century, now a rising vintage-French choice. Saint Delphine of Glandèves (1283-1360) — French noblewoman and Franciscan tertiary; the only canonized woman in a celibate marriage (with Saint Elzéar of Sabran); patroness of Provence. Delphine Seyrig (1932-1990) — *French actress and feminist filmmaker; muse of the French New Wave; starred in Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad (1961), one of the most-influential art films of the 20th century, and in Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman (1975) — which in 2022 was voted the greatest film of all time in the Sight and Sound critics' poll, the first film by a woman director to top the list. Delphine LaLaurie (1787-1849) — infamous New Orleans socialite; portrayed by Kathy Bates in American Horror Story: Coven (2013). Delphine de Vigan (born 1966) — French novelist; Rien ne s'oppose à la nuit (2011). Madame de Staël's novel Delphine (1802) — a landmark of early French Romantic and feminist literature. Delphine Arnault (born 1975)* — French business executive; CEO of Christian Dior Couture.
Featured throughout French cinema and literature.
Delphine does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Delphine reduce to 1, The Leader. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.