Head to head · Girls' names
Ila vs Iliana
#718 vs #730 in 2025
Ila is a whisker ahead (#718 vs #730 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Ila is back after a long quiet spell, Iliana is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Iliana has the edge.
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, Ila leads 4 measures of 6; Iliana 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: Ila #347, Iliana — — Ila higher
- 1890s: Ila #278, Iliana — — Ila higher
- 1900s: Ila #253, Iliana — — Ila higher
- 1910s: Ila #270, Iliana — — Ila higher
- 1920s: Ila #281, Iliana — — Ila higher
- 1930s: Ila #347, Iliana — — Ila higher
- 1940s: Ila #587, Iliana — — Ila higher
- 1950s: Ila #987, Iliana #4676 — Ila higher
- 1960s: Ila #1646, Iliana #2130 — Ila higher
- 1970s: Ila #2709, Iliana #1781 — Iliana higher
- 1980s: Ila #3852, Iliana #1238 — Iliana higher
- 1990s: Ila #4485, Iliana #863 — Iliana higher
- 2000s: Ila #2528, Iliana #758 — Iliana higher
- 2010s: Ila #1315, Iliana #815 — Iliana higher
- 2020s: Ila #721, Iliana #849 — Ila higher
Ila stood higher in 10 of 15 decades; Ila took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Ila | Iliana |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #347 | — |
| 1890s | #278 | — |
| 1900s | #253 | — |
| 1910s | #270 | — |
| 1920s | #281 | — |
| 1930s | #347 | — |
| 1940s | #587 | — |
| 1950s | #987 | #4676 |
| 1960s | #1646 | #2130 |
| 1970s | #2709 | #1781 |
| 1980s | #3852 | #1238 |
| 1990s | #4485 | #863 |
| 2000s | #2528 | #758 |
| 2010s | #1315 | #815 |
| 2020s | #721 | #849 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Ila
In Sanskrit, 'earth' — also 'speech' or 'flow'; the American name's route is a separate question
Two things share this spelling. Sanskrit Ilā is well documented, glossed as earth, speech, or flowing water, and borne by Ilā of the Puranas, child of Manu. The Ila that appears in nineteenth-century American records has no single settled source: it fits equally well as a clipped form of names ending in -ila (Camila, Priscilla, Ludmila), as a respelling of Ilah, and as the Hungarian pet form of Ilona. No one reading has won.
How it traveled
The oldest thread is Indian: Ilā appears in Sanskrit literature both as a common noun for the earth and as a named figure in the Puranas, and the name remains in use across South Asia today. The American Ila is a different arrival, showing up in the earliest US birth records without a documented parent name — its neighbors in those registers are Ida, Ola, Ella and Ilah, and it behaves like one of that family.
Iliana
Usually read as a form of Helen; in Greek and Bulgarian use, tied instead to Elijah or to the sun
Two serious roads meet at this spelling. As a variant of Romanian and Spanish Ileana, it belongs to the Elena–Helen family, whose Greek root Helenē has itself never been settled, though it is often connected to a word for torch or light. In Greek and Bulgarian, Iliana is instead the feminine counterpart of Ilias/Ilia — that is, Elijah, from Hebrew 'my God is Yahweh' — and is also linked by Greek speakers to helios, the sun. Both readings are genuine; neither cancels the other.
Helenē → Helena → Elena → Ileana → Iliana
How it traveled
The oldest layer is Greek Helenē, which passed into Latin and then spread through Europe as Elena and Helena. Romanian reshaped it into Ileana, the form that carries the fairy-tale princess Ileana Cosânzeana of Romanian folk tales, and Spanish took up Ileana as well.
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
Ila
EYE-la
EYE-la is the usual American reading. EE-la is standard for the Sanskrit name and is common wherever the South Asian Ilā is known. Both are correct for their own line, so whichever you pick, expect to say it twice on first meeting.
Iliana
ee-lee-AH-nah
Four syllables with the stress on the third. English speakers who read the first letter as a short i say ill-ee-AH-na, and both are heard in the US. Greek speakers place the stress the same way; Romanian Ileana shifts slightly to ee-LYAH-na.
- Lia — The most portable short form, and a full given name in its own right in Italian, Spanish and English.
- Ili — Informal, taken from the front of the name; sometimes written Illy or Ily.
- Ana — Drawn from the ending; stands alone as a given name across Spanish, Portuguese and Balkan languages.
- Nana — Household-level nickname, mostly used within families rather than at school.
- Also Elle.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Ila if you want…
- a name most people already know#718 in 2025, 390 babies that year
- a name with fewer syllablesIla is 2 syllables to Iliana's 4
- a name that stays wholeno recorded short form for Ila
- a long American recordIla was already in use when US records began in 1880
Choose Iliana if you want…
- a name fewer children share#730 in 2025 — iliana will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name on the way upup 161 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itIliana runs 4 syllables, Ila 2
- plenty of nickname options5 recorded short forms — Lia, Ili and Ana
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
Ila
Strengths
- Three letters and two syllables: fast to write, fast to say, and it fits on any form without abbreviation.
- On US records continuously since national name-keeping began, so it is old rather than newly coined.
- In genuine use in more than one part of the world, including South Asia, where the spelling is long established.
To consider
- Two live pronunciations, EYE-la and EE-la. Neither is wrong, but you will be correcting people for years, and so will she.
- It sits very close to Isla, Ella, Ida and Ayla in both sight and sound, and phone calls and roll calls will occasionally deliver one of those instead.
- In capitals or certain sans-serif fonts, ILA and Ila can read as a lowercase L. Worth checking how it looks in whatever font your paperwork uses.
Iliana
Strengths
- The ending it shares with Juliana, Adriana and Eliana means most people can spell it after hearing it once, even if they have never met it before.
- Works unchanged or near-unchanged in Spanish, Romanian, Greek and Bulgarian — useful in a family or a school that spans more than one language.
- Several ready-made short forms, including Lia and Ana, which are established given names on their own.
To consider
- The near-twins are the real cost: Eliana, Ileana, Ilyana and Iliana all circulate, and Eliana is the more common of them. Expect to spell it and to be called Eliana occasionally for life.
- The two stress patterns — ee-lee-AH-nah and ill-ee-AH-na — both exist in the US, so you may end up correcting the first vowel as often as the spelling.
- It has been gaining rather than fading, so it is likely to be somewhat better known by the time a child born now reaches school than it is now.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Ila
30%chance Ila feels dated by 2040
Ila is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
Iliana
50%chance Iliana feels dated by 2040
Iliana is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
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 Ila and Iliana 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 Ila and Iliana?
Put both to the vote.
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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 these names appear on
- Grandmother-chic: 1920s names ready to return
- Three-letter names: tiny and complete
- The names with the most spellings
- all guides
Where Ila and Iliana each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Ila or Iliana — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Ila or Iliana?
- Ila, in 2025: Ila ranked #718 with 390 babies; Iliana ranked #730 with 380 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Ila or Iliana?
- Iliana. Over the last five years Ila moved up 146 places; Iliana moved up 161 places.
- Which is the older name, Ila or Iliana?
- Ila was already in use when US records began in 1880; Iliana entered the US charts in 1955. On the American record, Ila is the older name.
- How many people are named Ila and Iliana?
- About 9,200 people named Ila are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 13,000 people named Iliana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Ilas or Ilianas in the classroom?
- Ila will almost certainly be the only one in school. Iliana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. 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 Ila, Iliana and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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