Head to head · Girls' names
Ayla vs Liliana
#77 vs #78 in 2025 · both climbing the charts fast
Ayla is a whisker ahead (#77 vs #78 in 2025) and both are climbing the charts fast. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
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, Ayla leads 4 measures of 6; Liliana 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
- 1950s: Ayla —, Liliana #4544 — Liliana higher
- 1960s: Ayla #5891, Liliana #2188 — Liliana higher
- 1970s: Ayla #9871, Liliana #863 — Liliana higher
- 1980s: Ayla #2759, Liliana #523 — Liliana higher
- 1990s: Ayla #839, Liliana #339 — Liliana higher
- 2000s: Ayla #607, Liliana #207 — Liliana higher
- 2010s: Ayla #262, Liliana #118 — Liliana higher
- 2020s: Ayla #98, Liliana #93 — Liliana higher
Liliana stood higher in every recorded decade — 8 of 8.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Ayla | Liliana |
|---|---|---|
| 1950s | — | #4544 |
| 1960s | #5891 | #2188 |
| 1970s | #9871 | #863 |
| 1980s | #2759 | #523 |
| 1990s | #839 | #339 |
| 2000s | #607 | #207 |
| 2010s | #262 | #118 |
| 2020s | #98 | #93 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Ayla
- Scotland#41
- Canada#44
- England & Wales#47
- France#71
Liliana
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Ayla
Turkish: 'moonlight' or 'halo around the moon'. Hebrew: 'doe' or 'oak', through Ayala.
The Turkish reading is straightforward: *ay* means moon, and Ayla is glossed as moonlight or the ring of light around the moon. Independently, Ayla is used in Hebrew as a variant of Ayala, tied to words for a female deer and for the oak or terebinth tree. Neither reading borrowed from the other; the same spelling simply arrived twice.
ay (Turkish: moon) → Ayla
How it traveled
The Turkish Ayla is the older documented thread — a name formed from *ay*, moon, and in ordinary use in Turkey and Azerbaijani-speaking areas well before it appeared in American records. The Hebrew line runs separately, where Ayla stands as a shorter form of Ayala.
Liliana
Lily, or a lengthened form of Lilian
Two accounts compete, and both are respectable. The straightforward one traces the name to Latin lilium, 'lily' — the flower of medieval Christian art and of countless Annunciation paintings. The other notes that English Lilian began life as a medieval pet form of Elizabeth, only later drawn toward the flower by sound; Liliana, as the Romance elaboration of Lilian, would inherit that history. Most Italian and Spanish usage today reads it simply as the lily.
Lilium → Lilian → Lillian → Liliana
How it traveled
The Latin lilium gave southern Europe its word for the lily, and gave a family of names its first syllables. Lilian appears in medieval and early modern England as a familiar form of Elizabeth, and by the nineteenth century Lillian was well established as a name in its own right, understood by then as a flower name.
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
Ayla
AY-lah
The usual American pronunciation is AY-lah, with the first syllable like the letter A. In Turkish, *ay* sounds like the English word 'eye', so a Turkish speaker will say something closer to eye-LAH. Both are correct in their own setting, and families who use the name across languages often live with both.
Liliana
lil-ee-AH-na
In Spanish and Italian the first syllable is closer to 'lee': lee-lee-AH-na. Some English speakers say lil-ee-AN-a, rhyming the third syllable with 'Anne'; both are heard in the US and neither needs correcting.
- Lily — The most common English short form, and a widely used given name on its own, so it may be read as the full name by people who meet her casually.
- Lili — The usual spelling in Italian, Spanish and Hungarian usage; informal, and travels well outside English.
- Lia — Taken from the middle of the name; a standalone given name in Italy and Portugal as well.
- Lilo — Informal, more common in German-speaking and some Latin American families than in English.
- Also Ana, Lil.
Who has carried each name
Ayla
No documented entry for Ayla yet.
Liliana
Liliana Segre (b. 1930) — Holocaust survivor made an Italian senator for life
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Ayla if you want…
- a name on the way upup 54 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesAyla is 2 syllables to Liliana's 4
- a name that stays wholeno recorded short form for Ayla
- a name that charts abroad tooAyla is on the national lists of Scotland, Canada, England & Wales and France
Choose Liliana if you want…
- a name with more sound in itLiliana runs 4 syllables, Ayla 2
- plenty of nickname options6 recorded short forms — Lily, Lili and Lia
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
Ayla
Strengths
- Short, phonetic and easy to spell from hearing it once — four letters, no silent letters, no doubled consonants.
- Works in Turkish, Hebrew and English without translation or adjustment, which matters in families that span more than one of them.
- Already recognized in several other countries, including Scotland, Canada, England and Wales, and France.
To consider
- It sits in a crowded sound-neighborhood with Isla, Layla, Lyla and Ayda. Expect a certain amount of gentle correcting, spoken and written.
- The AY-lah and eye-LAH pronunciations both have real claim to the name, so she may hear it two ways depending on who is speaking.
- The name is climbing rather than settling, so it will likely be better known by the time she starts school than it is now — familiar, though still not one of the names in every classroom.
Liliana
Strengths
- Works unchanged in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, so it needs no translating in a bilingual family.
- Short forms are already established and varied — Lily, Lili, Lia, Ana — rather than something a family has to invent.
- Close enough to the familiar Lillian that people grasp the spelling quickly once they hear it.
To consider
- The Lil- family is crowded: Lily, Lila, Lilah, Lillian and Lilliana are all in circulation, so she may share her opening sound with other children even while her full name stays uncommon.
- Spelling gets asked about — Liliana, Lilianna, Lilliana and Lillianna all exist. One 'l' in the middle, one 'n', is the standard form here.
- It is on a steady rise rather than settled, so the name is likely to be somewhat more familiar by the time she is grown than it is now.
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 Ayla and Liliana in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Ayla and Liliana?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
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 Ayla and Liliana — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Ayla or Liliana — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Ayla or Liliana?
- Ayla, in 2025: Ayla ranked #77 with 3,149 babies; Liliana ranked #78 with 3,118 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Ayla or Liliana?
- Ayla. Over the last five years Ayla moved up 54 places; Liliana moved up 32 places.
- Which is the older name, Ayla or Liliana?
- Ayla entered the US charts in 1963; Liliana entered the US charts in 1950. On the American record, Liliana is the older name.
- How many people are named Ayla and Liliana?
- About 38,000 people named Ayla are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 74,000 people named Liliana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Aylas or Lilianas in the classroom?
- Ayla will almost certainly be the only one in school. Liliana 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
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Ayla, Liliana and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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