Head to head · Girls' names
Iliana vs Taytum
#730 vs #732 in 2025 · both climbing the charts fast
Iliana is a whisker ahead (#730 vs #732 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, Iliana leads 5 measures of 6; Taytum leads 1.
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: Iliana #4676, Taytum — — Iliana higher
- 1960s: Iliana #2130, Taytum — — Iliana higher
- 1970s: Iliana #1781, Taytum — — Iliana higher
- 1980s: Iliana #1238, Taytum — — Iliana higher
- 1990s: Iliana #863, Taytum #8426 — Iliana higher
- 2000s: Iliana #758, Taytum #2926 — Iliana higher
- 2010s: Iliana #815, Taytum #1725 — Iliana higher
- 2020s: Iliana #849, Taytum #836 — Taytum higher
Iliana stood higher in 7 of 8 decades; Taytum took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Iliana | Taytum |
|---|---|---|
| 1950s | #4676 | — |
| 1960s | #2130 | — |
| 1970s | #1781 | — |
| 1980s | #1238 | — |
| 1990s | #863 | #8426 |
| 2000s | #758 | #2926 |
| 2010s | #815 | #1725 |
| 2020s | #849 | #836 |
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
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.
Taytum
from an English place name meaning "Tata's homestead"
The route is clear — Old English hām, homestead or settlement, attached to the personal name Tata. What Tata itself meant is not established; it belongs to a family of short Old English pet names whose sense has been lost.
Tata → Tateham → Tatham → Tatum → Taytum
How it traveled
Tatum starts as English geography — settlements named for a man called Tata — and hardens into a surname carried by families in northern England, notably in the Tatham and Tatum spellings. Surnames of that kind traveled well to America, where the jazz pianist Art Tatum made the sound familiar to a wide audience in the mid-twentieth century, and where the twentieth-century habit of turning surnames into girls' first names did the rest.
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
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.
Taytum
TAY-tum
Stress on the first syllable. The -ay- spelling removes the guesswork that Tatum occasionally invites, so readers land on it correctly the first time.
- Tay — The everyday short form; informal, and shared with Taylor.
- Tate — Drawn from the first syllable's sound; also stands alone as a given name in its own right, used for boys and girls.
- Tay-Tay — A doubling used mostly by family and in early childhood.
- Tot — An affectionate household form, rarely used outside the family.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Iliana if you want…
- a name with more sound in itIliana runs 4 syllables, Taytum 2
Choose Taytum if you want…
- a name on the way upup 445 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesTaytum is 2 syllables to Iliana's 4
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
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.
Taytum
Strengths
- The spelling states the pronunciation: nobody has to ask whether the first syllable is TAY or TAT.
- Short forms are already in circulation — Tay, Tate — and Tate is an established given name on its own.
- Sits inside a long-running American pattern of surnames used as first names, so it reads as familiar in kind even when the exact spelling is new.
To consider
- Tatum is the older and better-known spelling, so expect a lifetime of gentle correction — on forms, in email addresses, at the coffee counter.
- Respellings that swap in -ay- are a marker of a fairly narrow stretch of naming fashion, and that stamp may be legible to people later on.
- Surname names travel easily between boys and girls; Tatum is mostly given to girls in the US, but a stranger reading the name cold will not always assume that.
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 Iliana and Taytum 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 Iliana and Taytum?
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 these names appear on
Where Iliana and Taytum each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Iliana or Taytum — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Iliana or Taytum?
- Iliana, in 2025: Iliana ranked #730 with 380 babies; Taytum ranked #732 with 377 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Iliana or Taytum?
- Taytum. Over the last five years Iliana moved up 161 places; Taytum moved up 445 places.
- Which is the older name, Iliana or Taytum?
- Iliana entered the US charts in 1955; Taytum entered the US charts in 1992. On the American record, Iliana is the older name.
- How many people are named Iliana and Taytum?
- About 13,000 people named Iliana are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 4,000 people named Taytum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Ilianas or Taytums in the classroom?
- Iliana will almost certainly be the only one in school. Taytum 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
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