Lila
Feminine · “night" (Arabic)”
Lila is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 76,493 girls against 57 boys since 1880.
Lila is one of those short names that arrives from several directions at once: from the Arabic Layla of a love story retold for a thousand years, from the Sanskrit word līlā used in Hindu thought for divine play, and from the plain English habit of clipping Lillian and Delilah down to two syllables. It has been on American record books since the earliest years such lists were kept, never disappearing, and it is climbing again now.
How old is the name Lila?
Lila was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lila alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 47,500 people named Lila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lila most popular?
Lila peaked in 2010, reaching #155 nationally. Today it ranks #186, 31 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Where it comes from
From Layla to Lila
The story of Lila
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. Quite separately, American families were already trimming Lillian and Delilah to Lila, which is why the spelling appears in the earliest US records with no Eastern connection at all. The Sanskrit līlā gives a third, independent line into English via India.
Meaningscholars disagree
"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.
Cultural footprint
Lila Downs (b. 1968) — Grammy-winning Mexican-American singer
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Layla
- Leila
- Lila
Related forms: Layla (ليلى) · Leyla · Leila / Laila · Lila · Laila · Leela (लीला)
Pronouncing 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.
Nicknames for Lila
High
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 20101,969 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #155reached in 2010
- Change vs 2022
- +23.3%1,670 in 2025, from 1,354
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.
Lila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Layla (ليلى) in Arabic — transliteration
- Leyla in Turkish — same name
- Leila / Laila in Persian — transliteration
- Lila in French — same name
- Laila in Norwegian and Finnish — spelling variant
- Leela (लीला) in Hindi — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from INSEE. Sources
Lilas among us
people named Lila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 962 born in 2025 was named Lila
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lila
- #186
- Lila on the 2025 chart
- #19
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lila went to 1,670 girls in 2025, but Lyla, Lilah and Lylah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 9 spellings went to 7,096, which makes it the 19th most-given girls’ name of the year — 167 places above the chart.
and 4 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 227 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 962 for Lila itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Marcella test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lila's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marcella climbed just as high around 1922, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marcella's path sketches the road Lila is walking now.
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 scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Lila is headed
Lila should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Lila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lila in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- 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.
- Short enough to need no nickname, but sits alongside the well-worn Lil and Lilly if one is wanted.
- Common enough to be familiar to almost everyone, uncommon enough that a classroom is unlikely to hold two.
- 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.
- If the Delilah connection matters to you either way, it is worth knowing it exists: some people hear Lila as a shortening of that name rather than a name of its own.
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What they receive
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Lila
Feminine · #186 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lilas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 47,500 people named Lila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lila?
- Lila is one of 5 recorded spellings. Lyla is the more common one — 3,089 births in 2025 against 1,670 for Lila.
- How popular is the name Lila in 2025?
- Lila ranks #186 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,670 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lila?
- About 1 in every 962 US girls born in 2025 was named Lila — 1,670 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lila with classmates?
- Lila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Katherine#186 · Kaylani#185 · Celeste#188 · Adalynn#184 · Ximena#183 · Tatum#189 · Annie#182 · Haven#190
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lila? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lila and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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