Head to head · Girls' names
London vs Lyra
#431 vs #435 in 2025
London is a whisker ahead (#431 vs #435 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: London is stepping back from its peak, Lyra is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Lyra 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, London leads 4 measures of 6; Lyra 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
- 1890s: London —, Lyra #1461 — Lyra higher
- 1910s: London —, Lyra #3221 — Lyra higher
- 1920s: London —, Lyra #3658 — Lyra higher
- 1930s: London —, Lyra #4226 — Lyra higher
- 1940s: London —, Lyra #4435 — Lyra higher
- 1950s: London —, Lyra #5141 — Lyra higher
- 1960s: London #4711, Lyra #5191 — London higher
- 1970s: London #4114, Lyra #5541 — London higher
- 1980s: London #2946, Lyra #6472 — London higher
- 1990s: London #1132, Lyra #8440 — London higher
- 2000s: London #541, Lyra #3343 — London higher
- 2010s: London #121, Lyra #919 — London higher
- 2020s: London #301, Lyra #489 — London higher
London stood higher in 7 of 13 decades; London has held the lead since the 1960s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | London | Lyra |
|---|---|---|
| 1890s | — | #1461 |
| 1910s | — | #3221 |
| 1920s | — | #3658 |
| 1930s | — | #4226 |
| 1940s | — | #4435 |
| 1950s | — | #5141 |
| 1960s | #4711 | #5191 |
| 1970s | #4114 | #5541 |
| 1980s | #2946 | #6472 |
| 1990s | #1132 | #8440 |
| 2000s | #541 | #3343 |
| 2010s | #121 | #919 |
| 2020s | #301 | #489 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
London
Not charting outside the US.
Lyra
- England & Wales#83
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
London
From the city of London; the city name's own meaning is not settled
Londinium is the oldest recorded form, and it is pre-Roman rather than Latin in origin. The reading with the most scholarly support today, argued by the place-name specialist Richard Coates, traces it to a Brittonic river name meaning something like 'the flowing one' or 'river too wide to ford.' Older explanations tried to find a personal name or a word for a hill fort in it. None has won the argument outright.
Londinium → Lundenwic → Lunden → London
How it traveled
The name begins as a settlement the Romans established on the Thames and called Londinium; the word itself is older than their arrival and its sense was already obscure by then. Through the Anglo-Saxon centuries it moved through Lundenwic and Lunden before settling into the spelling used now.
Lyra
lyre — the stringed instrument, and the constellation named for it
From Greek λύρα, borrowed into Latin. In Greek myth the lyre set among the stars is the one played by Orpheus.
λύρα (Greek) → Lyra (Latin) → Lyra (constellation name in English) → Lyra
How it traveled
The word came first: lyra was the Greek name for the small harp-like instrument, and Latin took it unchanged. Ptolemy included Lyra among his forty-eight constellations in the second century, and it has stayed on every star map since, with Vega — one of the brightest stars in the northern sky — sitting inside it.
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
London
LUN-dun
Stress on the first syllable. The o's both sound like the u in 'sun' — the spelling looks nothing like the sound, but the city has taught the whole English-speaking world how to say it.
- Lo — The most common informal short form, used at home and among friends.
- Lon — Informal clipping; also an independent given name in its own right, mostly among older generations of men.
- Lonnie — Casual diminutive; stands alone as a given name too, where it usually comes from Alonzo rather than London.
- Donnie — An affectionate family-made form drawn from the second syllable rather than the first; heard rarely and only informally.
Lyra
LY-ruh
The common American pronunciation rhymes the first syllable with "my". A LEER-uh pronunciation also exists, closer to the Latin and to the Italian word lira, and both turn up among English speakers — worth deciding early which one your family uses.
- Ly — Informal, family-level clipping; rarely written down.
- Ry — Informal, from the second syllable; overlaps in sound with Ry from Ryan.
- Lyrie — Affectionate diminutive, used mostly with young children.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose London if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsLondon is stepping back from its peak
Choose Lyra if you want…
- a name on the way upup 114 places on the charts in five years
- a name that charts abroad tooLyra is on the national lists of England & Wales
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
London
Strengths
- Spelling and pronunciation are already known to almost everyone who reads English — no repeating, no correcting at the pharmacy counter.
- Recognizable in most languages, since the city carries its own name into French, Spanish, Italian and beyond.
- Works for a girl or a boy on the same spelling, with no change in form.
To consider
- Landon is a well-established boys' name that sits one vowel away, and the two get swapped in writing and in hearing. Expect to spell it out on forms more than the name's fame would suggest.
- Most children with this spelling are girls, so a boy named London will sometimes be assumed female on a roster or an email — usually a one-time correction, but a recurring one.
- It is unmistakably a place, and a famous one. Some people will ask about a family connection or make the 'London Bridge' joke; others will simply hear a name.
Lyra
Strengths
- Short, two syllables, and spelled the way it is said once the first vowel is settled — no silent letters to explain.
- A word with an unbroken written record from ancient Greek through Latin into modern astronomy.
- Used for children in both the US and the UK, so it travels between English-speaking countries without adjustment.
To consider
- The LY-ruh and LEER-uh pronunciations both circulate, so expect to correct people occasionally, in either direction.
- It lands close to Lyla, Lila, Layla and Lyric in sound and spelling, and will sometimes be written down as one of those.
- The name's wave is very recent, so a child named Lyra is likely to be the only one in her class while meeting others chiefly among children her own age.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
London
68%chance London feels dated by 2040
London is coming down from a big peak (#85 in 2013). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
Lyra
50%chance Lyra feels dated by 2040
Lyra 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 London and Lyra 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 London and Lyra?
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
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- Borrowed from the boys: names girls are winning
- Names that fell out of the top 100 this century
- Place names on the map and the birth certificate
- all guides
Where London and Lyra each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
London or Lyra — the short answers
- Which is more popular, London or Lyra?
- London, in 2025: London ranked #431 with 719 babies; Lyra ranked #435 with 711 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, London or Lyra?
- Lyra. Over the last five years London moved down 238 places; Lyra moved up 114 places.
- Which is the older name, London or Lyra?
- London entered the US charts in 1963; Lyra entered the US charts in 1893. On the American record, Lyra is the older name.
- How many people are named London and Lyra?
- About 44,000 people named London are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 7,900 people named Lyra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Londons or Lyras in the classroom?
- London will almost certainly be the only one in school. Lyra 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 London, Lyra and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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