Head to head · Girls' names
Katherine vs Lila
#186 vs #186 in 2025
Katherine and Lila share the same spot on the 2025 charts (#186). The records cannot split them; sound and story 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, Katherine leads 2 measures of 6; Lila 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
- 1880s: Katherine #54, Lila #234 — Katherine higher
- 1890s: Katherine #63, Lila #206 — Katherine higher
- 1900s: Katherine #62, Lila #205 — Katherine higher
- 1910s: Katherine #52, Lila #228 — Katherine higher
- 1920s: Katherine #63, Lila #198 — Katherine higher
- 1930s: Katherine #98, Lila #225 — Katherine higher
- 1940s: Katherine #78, Lila #346 — Katherine higher
- 1950s: Katherine #66, Lila #477 — Katherine higher
- 1960s: Katherine #80, Lila #764 — Katherine higher
- 1970s: Katherine #56, Lila #1027 — Katherine higher
- 1980s: Katherine #32, Lila #1154 — Katherine higher
- 1990s: Katherine #30, Lila #1221 — Katherine higher
- 2000s: Katherine #39, Lila #445 — Katherine higher
- 2010s: Katherine #87, Lila #195 — Katherine higher
- 2020s: Katherine #165, Lila #213 — Katherine higher
Katherine stood higher in every recorded decade — 15 of 15.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Katherine | Lila |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #54 | #234 |
| 1890s | #63 | #206 |
| 1900s | #62 | #205 |
| 1910s | #52 | #228 |
| 1920s | #63 | #198 |
| 1930s | #98 | #225 |
| 1940s | #78 | #346 |
| 1950s | #66 | #477 |
| 1960s | #80 | #764 |
| 1970s | #56 | #1027 |
| 1980s | #32 | #1154 |
| 1990s | #30 | #1221 |
| 2000s | #39 | #445 |
| 2010s | #87 | #195 |
| 2020s | #165 | #213 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Katherine
Not charting outside the US.
Lila
- France#90
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Katherine
Not established
The name's origin has never been established. The familiar association with a Greek word for pure is a later reinterpretation attached by writers who found the resemblance convincing, and the earliest recorded forms point somewhere else.
Aikaterine → Catherine → Katherine
How it traveled
The k and the c spellings split along national lines and always have. Germany, the Scandinavian countries and Poland write it with a k, because their alphabets use the letter freely and their languages took the name through Greek.
Lila
"night" (Arabic), "play, divine play" (Sanskrit), or a short form of Lillian or Delilah
Three serious readings meet at this spelling. As a Western form of Arabic Layla it carries the sense "night." In Sanskrit, līlā means "play" or "sport," a term used in Hindu theology for the play of the divine, and Lila is a documented Indian given name from it. And in nineteenth-century English-speaking use, Lila served plainly as a short form of Lillian, Delilah and sometimes Elizabeth. Which road a particular Lila came down usually depends on the family.
Layla → Leila → Lila
How it traveled
The oldest and best-documented road runs through Arabic: Layla, the beloved of the poet Qays in the tale of Layla and Majnun, given its most famous shape by the twelfth-century Persian poet Nizami and retold across Persian, Turkish and Urdu literature ever since. English-language readers met the name through Romantic-era poetry — Byron used Leila in The Giaour in 1813 — and the vowel loosened into Leila, Laila and Lila as it moved between alphabets.
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
Katherine
KATH-ur-in
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The middle is reduced almost to nothing, which is why it is spelled with an e in some forms and an a in others.
- Kate — The dominant short form and a complete name in its own right.
- Kitty — An older affectionate form; warm and rather Victorian.
- Rina — Taken from the back; a standing name across several languages.
Lila
LYE-luh
Both LYE-luh and LEE-luh are in genuine use in the US, the second reflecting the Arabic and Sanskrit sources more closely. Neither is wrong, but the two do not sort themselves out on their own — most families end up saying which they mean, more than once.
- Lil — The most common informal clip; also used for Lillian and Lily, so it rarely points back to one name.
- Lilly — Informal extension rather than a true shortening; stands alone as a given name in its own right.
- Lils — Casual, mostly among friends and siblings; a modern-sounding form.
- Lolly — Family-only affectionate form, more common in older generations.
- Also Li.
Who has carried each name
Katherine
Katherine Johnson (b. 1918) — NASA mathematician celebrated in Hidden Figures
Katherine Heigl (b. 1978) — Grey's Anatomy's Izzie
Lila
Lila Downs (b. 1968) — Grammy-winning Mexican-American singer
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 Katherine if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsKatherine is stepping back from its peak
- a name with more sound in itKatherine runs 3 syllables, Lila 2
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 12% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 50% for Lila
Choose Lila if you want…
- a name on the way upup 42 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesLila is 2 syllables to Katherine's 3
- plenty of nickname options5 recorded short forms — Lil, Lilly and Lils
- a name that charts abroad tooLila is on the national lists of France
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
Katherine
Strengths
- It has more short forms than almost any other name, across several registers.
- It is recognized in every European language with small changes.
- It has been in continuous use for well over a thousand years.
To consider
- Two spellings are equally standard and the choice is queried for life.
- No meaning can be given honestly, whatever other pages assert.
- It is common enough that a child may not be the only one nearby.
Lila
Strengths
- Two syllables, four letters, and no silent letters — easy to write early and easy to read aloud once the vowel is agreed on.
- An unbroken presence in American records from the beginning of such records to now, so it reads as neither invented nor dated.
- Works across languages: recognizable in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, French and Indian naming traditions without needing a new spelling.
To consider
- The pronunciation genuinely splits — LYE-luh and LEE-luh are both current — so expect to correct people occasionally, and expect a few to keep getting it wrong.
- Lila, Lyla, Layla, Leila and Laila are all in circulation and all sound close. Spelling it out over the phone will become routine, and mail will sometimes arrive under the wrong version.
- The sound is currently well represented across that whole family of spellings, so a Lila may meet a Layla or a Lyla even while remaining the only Lila.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Katherine
12%chance Katherine feels dated by 2040
Katherine has held the top-100 across 14 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
Lila
50%chance Lila feels dated by 2040
Lila 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 Katherine and Lila 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
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Put both to the vote.
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Long and elegant: names with room to breathe
- Names of the '80s and '90s, currently resting
- Millennial names (born 1981–1996)
- Generation Z names (born 1997–2012)
- all guides
Where Katherine and Lila each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Katherine or Lila — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Katherine or Lila?
- They tie in 2025: Katherine ranked #186 with 1,670 babies; Lila ranked #186 with 1,670 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Katherine or Lila?
- Lila. Over the last five years Katherine moved down 50 places; Lila moved up 42 places.
- Which is the older name, Katherine or Lila?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Katherine and Lila?
- About 487,000 people named Katherine are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 47,500 people named Lila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Katherines or Lilas in the classroom?
- Katherine will almost certainly be the only one in school. Lila 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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