Head to head · Girls' names
Lily vs Luna
#18 vs #27 in 2025
Lily is a whisker ahead (#18 vs #27 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Lily is climbing the charts fast, Luna 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, Lily leads 4 measures of 6; Luna 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: Lily #236, Luna #488 — Lily higher
- 1890s: Lily #280, Luna #551 — Lily higher
- 1900s: Lily #326, Luna #652 — Lily higher
- 1910s: Lily #325, Luna #938 — Lily higher
- 1920s: Lily #345, Luna #1258 — Lily higher
- 1930s: Lily #444, Luna #1989 — Lily higher
- 1940s: Lily #632, Luna #3186 — Lily higher
- 1950s: Lily #797, Luna #5080 — Lily higher
- 1960s: Lily #989, Luna #5630 — Lily higher
- 1970s: Lily #1032, Luna #6597 — Lily higher
- 1980s: Lily #692, Luna #6428 — Lily higher
- 1990s: Lily #352, Luna #3108 — Lily higher
- 2000s: Lily #57, Luna #757 — Lily higher
- 2010s: Lily #25, Luna #144 — Lily higher
- 2020s: Lily #26, Luna #14 — Luna higher
Lily stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Luna took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Lily | Luna |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #236 | #488 |
| 1890s | #280 | #551 |
| 1900s | #326 | #652 |
| 1910s | #325 | #938 |
| 1920s | #345 | #1258 |
| 1930s | #444 | #1989 |
| 1940s | #632 | #3186 |
| 1950s | #797 | #5080 |
| 1960s | #989 | #5630 |
| 1970s | #1032 | #6597 |
| 1980s | #692 | #6428 |
| 1990s | #352 | #3108 |
| 2000s | #57 | #757 |
| 2010s | #25 | #144 |
| 2020s | #26 | #14 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Lily
- England & Wales#3
- Scotland#8
- Canada#9
- France#70
Luna
- France#33
- Canada#37
- England & Wales#48
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Lily
The lily flower, from Latin lilium
The Latin lilium reached English as the flower name lily, and the given name comes directly from it. Lily also works as a short form of Lilian, Lillian and Liliana, so some bearers arrive at it from that side rather than from the flower.
Lilium → Lilie → Lilian → Lily
How it traveled
The flower word came into English from Latin lilium, itself connected to Greek leirion, and for centuries it was a plant, not a person. The lily carried heavy symbolic freight in medieval and Renaissance Europe — the white Madonna lily of Christian art, the stylized fleur-de-lis of the French crown — which kept the word in constant view.
Luna
Moon
Directly from Latin lūna, 'moon' — the same root behind English 'lunar'.
Latin lūna (moon) → Luna (Roman goddess of the moon) → Luna
How it traveled
The word came first: lūna, the Latin for moon, which in Roman religion was also a goddess, worshipped alongside Sol and matched in Greek myth by Selene. Because Latin gave way to Italian, Spanish, Catalan and Romanian, 'luna' survived as an everyday word in each of them, which is why the name feels native in so many places at once.
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
Lily
LIL-ee
Stress on the first syllable. The pronunciation is the same in American and British English, and speakers of most languages manage it without instruction.
- Lil — The long-established informal short form, used within families and among friends.
- Lils — A casual modern shortening, mostly used by peers rather than adults.
- Lily — Stands fully on its own as a given name, and also serves as the standard short form of Lilian, Lillian and Liliana.
Luna
LOO-nuh
Said the same way in English, Spanish and Italian, with a slightly crisper final vowel in the latter two: LOO-nah. Very little room for error in any of them.
- Lu — The most common short form; informal, used at home more than on paper.
- Lulu — Affectionate, and a stand-alone given name in its own right in English and French.
- Lunita — Spanish diminutive, used affectionately in Spanish-speaking families.
- Luney — Heard informally, though the sound-alike 'loony' means some families steer away from it.
Who has carried each name
Lily
Lily Collins (b. 1989) — Star of Emily in Paris, daughter of Phil Collins
Lily Tomlin (b. 1939) — Comedy trailblazer with Tonys, Emmys, and a Grammy
Lily James (b. 1989) — Played Cinderella in Disney's live-action remake
Luna
No documented entry for Luna yet.
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 Lily if you want…
- a name on the way upup 17 places on the charts in five years
- a name that charts abroad tooLily is on the national lists of England & Wales, Scotland, Canada and France
Choose Luna if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsLuna is stepping back from its peak
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
Lily
Strengths
- Needs no spelling out in the English-speaking world: the flower is the word, so most people write it correctly on the first hearing.
- Recognized across borders — it charts in Britain, Scotland, Canada and France, and has close cousins in Italian, Russian and Scandinavian.
- Two short syllables that a toddler can pronounce, and that survive being shouted across a playground.
To consider
- The spelling competes with Lilly and Lillie, and with Lila, Lilah and Lyla nearby in sound. Expect the occasional correction, and expect similar names in the same room.
- It has been climbing steadily rather than fading, so a Lily is likely to meet other girls with the same name or a near-match at some point.
- The short form Lil is also a familiar prefix in hip-hop stage names, which some children find funny for a while.
Luna
Strengths
- One spelling, one pronunciation. Almost no one will need to ask how to write it or say it.
- Works unchanged in Spanish, Italian and Romanian, where it is also simply the word for the moon.
- Currently charts in France, Canada and England & Wales as well as the US — it travels without translation.
To consider
- The name's whole wave is recent, so nearly everyone carrying it is a child. That will pass as this generation grows, but for now it reads young.
- 'Lunatic' and 'loony' come from the same Latin root, and children find that sooner or later. Most Lunas hear it once and move on.
- It is also a very popular name for dogs and cats, which comes up more often than parents expect.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Lily
67%chance Lily feels dated by 2040
Lily 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.
Luna
83%chance Luna feels dated by 2040
Luna is coming down from a big peak (#10 in 2022). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
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 Lily and Luna 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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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- America's top 100 names right now
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- all guides
Every list here names both Lily and Luna — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Lily or Luna — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Lily or Luna?
- Lily, in 2025: Lily ranked #18 with 6,673 babies; Luna ranked #27 with 6,076 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Lily or Luna?
- Lily. Over the last five years Lily moved up 17 places; Luna moved down 13 places.
- Which is the older name, Lily or Luna?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Lily and Luna?
- About 177,000 people named Lily are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 85,500 people named Luna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Lilys or Lunas in the classroom?
- Roughly 1 in 10 classrooms will have a child named Lily. Luna 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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