Lilah
Feminine · “night' through Layla”
Lilah is two syllables that open wide and close soft, and the -ah ending puts it in old company: Hannah, Sarah, Norah. It reaches English by more than one road — as a short form of Delilah, as a respelling of Lila, and through the Arabic and Persian Layla that Romantic poets carried into English verse. Its current wave is recent, but the name itself has been in quiet American use much longer than that wave suggests.
How old is the name Lilah?
Lilah first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Lilah is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 23,500 people named Lilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lilah most popular?
Lilah peaked in 2024, reaching #179 nationally. Today it ranks #179, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2024 chart.
Where it comes from
From Layla to Lilah
The story of Lilah
Lila arrived in English-speaking use in the nineteenth century from two directions at once: as a home-made short form of Delilah and Lily, and as an Anglicized cousin of Leila, the Arabic and Persian Layla that Byron put into English poetry in 'The Giaour' in the early nineteenth century. Lilah is that name with the older -h ending, the same finish that Hannah, Sarah and Norah wear. The spelling has been on American records for well over a century, mostly in small numbers, before the recent climb. It also charts in Scotland, so the form is recognized on both sides of the Atlantic.
Meaningscholars disagree
'night' through Layla, or 'play' through Sanskrit līlā — depending on which root you follow
Three serious readings meet at this spelling. Followed back to Arabic and Persian Layla, it means 'night'. Followed to Sanskrit līlā, it means 'play' or 'divine play'. Read instead as a clipped Delilah, it inherits that Hebrew name's own unsettled sense, usually given as 'delicate' or 'languishing'. Nothing in the record forces a choice, and most families are comfortable with more than one.
How the name formed
- Layla
- Leila
- Lila
- Lilah
Related forms: Layla · Leyla · Leyla · Lila · Lyla · Delilah
Pronouncing Lilah
LY-luh
In the US the first syllable almost always rhymes with 'my'. The related spellings Leila and Layla are more often heard as LAY-luh or LEE-luh, so expect the occasional guess in that direction on a first meeting.
Nicknames for Lilah
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
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 20251,736 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #179reached in 2024
- Change vs 2022
- +27.3%1,736 in 2025, from 1,364
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.
Lilah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Layla in Arabic — related form
- Leyla in Persian — related form
- Leyla in Turkish — related form
- Lila in English — spelling variant
- Lyla in English — spelling variant
- Delilah in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from National Records of Scotland. Sources
Lilahs among us
people named Lilah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 926 born in 2025 was named Lilah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lilah
- #179
- Lilah on the 2025 chart
- #19
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lilah went to 1,736 girls in 2025, but Lyla, Lila 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 — 160 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 926 for Lilah 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 Kyra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lilah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kyra climbed just as high around 2005, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kyra's path sketches the road Lilah is walking now.
Lilah 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 Lilah is headed
Lilah looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Lilah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lilah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and easy for a child to write early — two syllables, no silent letters.
- The -ah ending is already familiar from Hannah, Sarah and Norah, so the shape of the word looks ordinary even when the name is new to someone.
- Recognized across Arabic, Persian and Turkish as Layla or Leyla, and charting in Scotland as well as the US.
- Doubles as the standard short form of Delilah, which gives a longer formal option later if it is ever wanted.
- The spelling family is crowded: Lila, Lyla, Leila, Layla and Laila all sit nearby and all sound similar. Expect to spell it aloud often, and to receive mail addressed to a slightly different version of your daughter.
- The wave is very recent, so for now nearly every Lilah is a child rather than an adult. That reverses on its own as this generation grows up.
- Through Delilah it brushes against the Samson story in the Hebrew Bible, where Delilah is the betrayer. Few people make the connection with the short form, but a few will.
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What they receive
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Lilah
Feminine · #179 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lilahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 23,500 people named Lilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lilah?
- Lilah is one of 5 recorded spellings. Lyla is the more common one — 3,089 births in 2025 against 1,736 for Lilah.
- How popular is the name Lilah in 2025?
- Lilah ranks #179 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,736 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lilah?
- About 1 in every 926 US girls born in 2025 was named Lilah — 1,736 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lilah with classmates?
- Lilah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lilah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Amaya#180 · Daphne#178 · Sutton#181 · Isabel#176 · Annie#182 · Freya#176 · Ximena#183 · Callie#175
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lilah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lilah 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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