Liliana
Feminine · “Lily”
Liliana is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 74,990 girls against 156 boys since 1880.
Four syllables that move in a wave — three light ones and then the long open AH before the close. It is the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian form of a name English speakers know as Lillian, and it has carried the Latin word for lily along with it. In Italy it has been worn in public life for generations, from film direction to the Senate.
How old is the name Liliana?
Liliana first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Liliana alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 74,000 people named Liliana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Liliana most popular?
Liliana peaked in 2025, reaching #78 nationally. Today it ranks #78, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Lilium to Liliana
The story of Liliana
The Latin lilium gave southern Europe its word for the lily, and gave a family of names its first syllables. Lilian appears in medieval and early modern England as a familiar form of Elizabeth, and by the nineteenth century Lillian was well established as a name in its own right, understood by then as a flower name. The Romance languages built out the fuller Liliana, which settled comfortably into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, where the -ana ending is thoroughly at home. It reached American records in the middle of the twentieth century and has been climbing since, helped by Spanish-speaking and Italian-American families who never needed it introduced.
Meaningscholars disagree
Lily, or a lengthened form of Lilian
Two accounts compete, and both are respectable. The straightforward one traces the name to Latin lilium, 'lily' — the flower of medieval Christian art and of countless Annunciation paintings. The other notes that English Lilian began life as a medieval pet form of Elizabeth, only later drawn toward the flower by sound; Liliana, as the Romance elaboration of Lilian, would inherit that history. Most Italian and Spanish usage today reads it simply as the lily.
Cultural footprint
Liliana Segre (b. 1930) — Holocaust survivor made an Italian senator for life
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Lilium
- Lilian
- Lillian
- Liliana
Related forms: Liliana · Liliana · Liliana · Lilianna · Liliane · Lillian
Pronouncing Liliana
lil-ee-AH-na
In Spanish and Italian the first syllable is closer to 'lee': lee-lee-AH-na. Some English speakers say lil-ee-AN-a, rhyming the third syllable with 'Anne'; both are heard in the US and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Liliana
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
- 1950
- Most girls named
- 20253,118 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #78reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +11.1%3,118 in 2025, from 2,807
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.
Liliana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Liliana in Italian — same name
- Liliana in Spanish — same name
- Liliana in Romanian — same name
- Lilianna in Polish — spelling variant
- Liliane in French — related form
- Lillian in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Lilianas among us
people named Liliana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 515 born in 2025 was named Liliana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Liliana
- #78
- Liliana on the 2025 chart
- #48
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Liliana went to 3,118 girls in 2025, but Lilliana, Lilianna and Lilyana and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 10 spellings went to 4,784, which makes it the 48th most-given girls’ name of the year — 30 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 336 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 515 for Liliana 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 Sherri test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Liliana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sherri climbed just as high around 1963, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sherri's path sketches the road Liliana is walking now.
Liliana 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 Liliana is headed
Liliana 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.
Liliana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Liliana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, so it needs no translating in a bilingual family.
- Short forms are already established and varied — Lily, Lili, Lia, Ana — rather than something a family has to invent.
- Close enough to the familiar Lillian that people grasp the spelling quickly once they hear it.
- A documented record in Italian public life, including in film and in the Senate, alongside long ordinary use across Latin America.
- The Lil- family is crowded: Lily, Lila, Lilah, Lillian and Lilliana are all in circulation, so she may share her opening sound with other children even while her full name stays uncommon.
- Spelling gets asked about — Liliana, Lilianna, Lilliana and Lillianna all exist. One 'l' in the middle, one 'n', is the standard form here.
- It is on a steady rise rather than settled, so the name is likely to be somewhat more familiar by the time she is grown than it is now.
- Stress placement shifts between English and Spanish or Italian speakers. That is a small thing, and children with cross-language names generally learn both versions of themselves early.
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What they receive
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Liliana
Feminine · #78 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lilianas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 74,000 people named Liliana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Liliana?
- Liliana is the most-used spelling in US records — 3,118 of the 4,784 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Lilliana, Lilianna, Lilyana, Lillianna, Lilyanna, Lillyana and Lillyanna.
- How popular is the name Liliana in 2025?
- Liliana ranks #78 among US girl names in 2025, with 3,118 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Liliana?
- About 1 in every 515 US girls born in 2025 was named Liliana — 3,118 in all.
- Will my child share the name Liliana with classmates?
- Liliana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Liliana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Melody#79 · Ayla#77 · Maeve#76 · Lyla#80 · Daisy#75 · Madeline#81 · Emery#74 · Josie#82
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Liliana? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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