Delia

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.

==Meanings and origins== According to records for the 1901 Irish census, there were 6,260 people named Delia living that year in all 32 counties of Ireland, with 256 more bearing the full forename Bedelia (plus 59 other people 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 fertility goddess (later, to an important medieval saint). thumb|300px|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.