Ilan
Masculine · Aramaic roots · “tree”
Ilan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,231 boys against 59 girls since 1880.
Ilan is the Hebrew word for a tree, and it has been a word far longer than it has been a name — it turns up in the Aramaic chapters of the Book of Daniel, describing the great tree of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. As a given name it belongs to the modern revival of spoken Hebrew, and it travels easily: two open syllables, no consonant cluster anywhere, the same on the tongue in English, French and Spanish.
How old is the name Ilan?
Ilan first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Ilan alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 3,200 people named Ilan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ilan most popular?
Ilan peaked in 2003, reaching #1131 nationally. Today it ranks #1443, 312 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Ilan appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From ilan / ilana (Aramaic and Hebrew for 'tree') to Ilan
The story of Ilan
The word came first. Ilan (and its Aramaic form ilana) is used for the towering tree in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in the Book of Daniel, and it settled into rabbinic Hebrew as the ordinary word for a tree. When Hebrew returned to daily speech in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, plain nature words like this one were taken up as first names, and Ilan became a standard boys' name in Israel alongside the feminine Ilana. From there it spread with Jewish communities to France, where it is well used, and to Latin America and North America — which matches the American picture, where it is most often recorded in California, Texas and New York.
Meaning
tree
The Hebrew noun אילן (ilan) means a tree, particularly a full-grown one. The plural appears in the Hebrew name for Tu BiShvat, Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot, the new year of the trees.
How the name formed
- ilan / ilanaAramaic and Hebrew for 'tree'
- אילן
- Ilan
Related forms: אילן · Ilan · Ilán · Elan · Ilana · Ilanit
Pronouncing Ilan
ee-LAHN
The Hebrew stress falls on the second syllable: ee-LAHN. In American English many families say EE-lan, with the weight up front, and both are widely heard. Either way the first vowel is 'ee', not 'eye'.
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1965
- Most boys named
- 2023153 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1131reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- −0.8%124 in 2025, from 125
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Ilan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אילן in Hebrew — transliteration
- Ilan in French — same name
- Ilán in Spanish — spelling variant
- Elan in English — spelling variant
- Ilana in Hebrew (feminine) — related form
- Ilanit in Hebrew (feminine) — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Ilans among us
people named Ilan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 13,775 born in 2025 was named Ilan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Dutch test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ilan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dutch climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dutch's path sketches the road Ilan is walking now.
Ilan sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ilan is headed
Ilan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Ilan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ilan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is plain and undisputed — Hebrew for 'tree' — with a documented life as a word going back to the Aramaic of the Book of Daniel.
- Short already: two syllables, four letters, no need for a nickname and nothing to abbreviate at the coffee counter.
- Works unchanged in English, French and Spanish, which suits a family with more than one language at the table.
- Familiar in Israel and well established in France, so it is rare in American classrooms without being unrecognizable to anyone.
- It will be misheard more than misspelled. Over the phone Ilan lands close to Alan, Elan and Ethan, and the correction becomes a small lifelong habit — usually one sentence long.
- Stress is genuinely unsettled between ee-LAHN and EE-lan. Deciding early which one your family uses saves him from choosing between his relatives' version and his teachers'.
- The feminine Ilana and Ilanit are well known, so a few people will pause over the ending. In Hebrew usage Ilan itself is unambiguously a boys' name.
- He is unlikely to meet another Ilan at school. Some children like that entirely; others would rather share a name — worth a thought, no more.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Ilan
Masculine · Aramaic roots · #1443 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ilans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,200 people named Ilan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ilan in 2025?
- Ilan ranks #1443 among US boy names in 2025, with 124 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ilan?
- About 1 in every 13,775 US boys born in 2025 was named Ilan — 124 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ilan with classmates?
- Ilan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ilan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Reyansh#1443 · Hampton#1443 · Glenn#1443 · Khamari#1443 · Nick#1443 · Syair#1443 · Yair#1443 · Niam#1436
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ilan? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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