Will the value of DFF remain if the DFF is deleted

I have a DFF at the customer account level. If I delete the DFF and assign a new attribute to that particular DFF , will the old value in the DFF for a customer remain or will that too be deleted?

Ex: I have an attribute 1 assigned for "Established year" and a customer has a value of 1980. If i delete the DFF in setup & maintenance and somewhere down the line in the future, I assign Attribute-1 as "Alternate name", will the old value of 1980 get populated?