Head to head · Girls' names
Amaya vs Lilah
#180 vs #179 in 2025
Lilah is a whisker ahead (#179 vs #180 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Lilah is climbing the charts fast, Amaya is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Lilah leads 4 measures of 6; Amaya leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Amaya —, Lilah #980 — Lilah higher
- 1890s: Amaya —, Lilah #923 — Lilah higher
- 1900s: Amaya —, Lilah #1136 — Lilah higher
- 1910s: Amaya —, Lilah #1296 — Lilah higher
- 1920s: Amaya —, Lilah #1569 — Lilah higher
- 1930s: Amaya —, Lilah #2260 — Lilah higher
- 1940s: Amaya —, Lilah #3211 — Lilah higher
- 1950s: Amaya —, Lilah #4402 — Lilah higher
- 1960s: Amaya —, Lilah #5124 — Lilah higher
- 1970s: Amaya #7840, Lilah #5280 — Lilah higher
- 1980s: Amaya #6714, Lilah #5134 — Lilah higher
- 1990s: Amaya #3612, Lilah #4878 — Amaya higher
- 2000s: Amaya #221, Lilah #1085 — Amaya higher
- 2010s: Amaya #197, Lilah #303 — Amaya higher
- 2020s: Amaya #163, Lilah #210 — Amaya higher
Lilah stood higher in 11 of 15 decades; Amaya has held the lead since the 1990s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Amaya | Lilah |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | — | #980 |
| 1890s | — | #923 |
| 1900s | — | #1136 |
| 1910s | — | #1296 |
| 1920s | — | #1569 |
| 1930s | — | #2260 |
| 1940s | — | #3211 |
| 1950s | — | #4402 |
| 1960s | — | #5124 |
| 1970s | #7840 | #5280 |
| 1980s | #6714 | #5134 |
| 1990s | #3612 | #4878 |
| 2000s | #221 | #1085 |
| 2010s | #197 | #303 |
| 2020s | #163 | #210 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Amaya
Not charting outside the US.
Lilah
- Scotland#100
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Amaya
Either "the end" in Basque, or the Castilian place name Amaya
Two serious readings compete. In Basque, amaia means "the end," and Amaia is a well-established given name there. Separately, Amaya is the name of Peña Amaya, a hill and ancient stronghold in the province of Burgos, whose own name is pre-Roman and has never been convincingly translated. A Japanese surname romanized as Amaya also exists, written with several different character combinations, so no single meaning attaches to it either.
Amaya (hill and stronghold, Burgos) → Amaya (Castilian surname) → Amaia (Basque given name) → Amaya (given name)
How it traveled
Peña Amaya, a high rocky outcrop in northern Burgos, was a Cantabrian stronghold before Rome took the region, and later a seat under the Visigoths; the surname Amaya spread from that place through Castile and, in time, across the Spanish-speaking world. The name's life as a girl's given name owes much to the Basque Country, where Amaia became current after the nineteenth-century Spanish novelist Francisco Navarro Villoslada published his historical novel Amaya, set in the eighth century.
Lilah
'night' through Layla, or 'play' through Sanskrit līlā — depending on which root you follow
Three serious readings meet at this spelling. Followed back to Arabic and Persian Layla, it means 'night'. Followed to Sanskrit līlā, it means 'play' or 'divine play'. Read instead as a clipped Delilah, it inherits that Hebrew name's own unsettled sense, usually given as 'delicate' or 'languishing'. Nothing in the record forces a choice, and most families are comfortable with more than one.
Layla → Leila → Lila → Lilah
How it traveled
Lila arrived in English-speaking use in the nineteenth century from two directions at once: as a home-made short form of Delilah and Lily, and as an Anglicized cousin of Leila, the Arabic and Persian Layla that Byron put into English poetry in 'The Giaour' in the early nineteenth century. Lilah is that name with the older -h ending, the same finish that Hannah, Sarah and Norah wear.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Amaya
uh-MY-uh
That is the usual American reading. In Spanish and Basque it is ah-MAH-ya, with a fuller first vowel and the y as in "yes." Both are correct for their setting, and bilingual families often use each in its own language.
- Maya — The most common short form in English, and a widely used given name in its own right, which can blur the two.
- Aya — Informal, drawn from the last two syllables; also a standalone given name in Japanese and Arabic.
- Ama — Family-level shortening, mostly used by parents and siblings rather than outside the house.
- Amy — An English-sounding reduction some bearers adopt at school or work; unrelated in origin to Amaya.
Lilah
LY-luh
In the US the first syllable almost always rhymes with 'my'. The related spellings Leila and Layla are more often heard as LAY-luh or LEE-luh, so expect the occasional guess in that direction on a first meeting.
- Lilah — Widely used as the everyday short form of Delilah, and just as often given as the full name on the certificate.
- Lils — Informal, family-and-friends level; common among children and teenagers.
- Lee — Informal clip; also stands alone as a given name for both sexes in English.
- Li — Very informal, mostly spoken rather than written.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Amaya if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsAmaya is stepping back from its peak
- a name with more sound in itAmaya runs 3 syllables, Lilah 2
Choose Lilah if you want…
- a name on the way upup 61 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesLilah is 2 syllables to Amaya's 3
- a name that charts abroad tooLilah is on the national lists of Scotland
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Amaya
Strengths
- Reads correctly on sight for most English speakers — no silent letters, no ambiguous consonants.
- Works in both English and Spanish without changing spelling, which matters in bilingual households.
- Comes with ready-made short forms, Maya above all, so a child has options without inventing one.
To consider
- Two pronunciations coexist: uh-MY-uh in most English-speaking settings, ah-MAH-ya in Spanish and Basque. Families that speak both will hear their child's name said two ways, which is manageable but worth deciding on early.
- It sits in a crowded spelling neighborhood — Amaia, Amayah, Amiyah, Amara, Amira — so expect to spell it aloud fairly often, even to people who already know how to say it.
- The best-known Basque reading is "the end," which some relatives will find striking and some will ask about. The Castilian place-name origin is the other honest answer.
Lilah
Strengths
- Short, phonetic and easy for a child to write early — two syllables, no silent letters.
- The -ah ending is already familiar from Hannah, Sarah and Norah, so the shape of the word looks ordinary even when the name is new to someone.
- Recognized across Arabic, Persian and Turkish as Layla or Leyla, and charting in Scotland as well as the US.
To consider
- The spelling family is crowded: Lila, Lyla, Leila, Layla and Laila all sit nearby and all sound similar. Expect to spell it aloud often, and to receive mail addressed to a slightly different version of your daughter.
- The wave is very recent, so for now nearly every Lilah is a child rather than an adult. That reverses on its own as this generation grows up.
- Through Delilah it brushes against the Samson story in the Hebrew Bible, where Delilah is the betrayer. Few people make the connection with the short form, but a few will.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Amaya and Lilah in full.
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Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Amaya and Lilah — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Amaya or Lilah — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Amaya or Lilah?
- Lilah, in 2025: Lilah ranked #179 with 1,736 babies; Amaya ranked #180 with 1,723 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Amaya or Lilah?
- Lilah. Over the last five years Amaya moved down 41 places; Lilah moved up 61 places.
- Which is the older name, Amaya or Lilah?
- Amaya entered the US charts in 1972; Lilah entered the US charts in 1884. On the American record, Lilah is the older name.
- How many people are named Amaya and Lilah?
- About 43,000 people named Amaya are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 23,500 people named Lilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Amayas or Lilahs in the classroom?
- Amaya will almost certainly be the only one in school. Lilah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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