Lilla
Feminine · “lily”
Lilla is a flower and an ending at once — a form of Lily in English, and a genuine Hungarian name with a documented literary origin of its own.
How old is the name Lilla?
Lilla was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lilla alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 1,500 people named Lilla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lilla most popular?
Lilla peaked in 1880, reaching #261 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 4,726 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lilium to Lilla
The story of Lilla
The lily was one of the great emblematic flowers of medieval Europe, and flower names became fashionable for girls in the nineteenth century — Lily, Rose, Violet, Daisy, Iris. Lilla appears in American registers alongside them from the 1870s. Separately, Hungarian has Lilla as an established name, coined by the poet Mihály Csokonai Vitéz for the woman he addressed in his verse. American use peaked around 1885.
Meaningscholars disagree
lily
Read as a form of Lily, the meaning is the Latin lilium, the flower — a symbol of purity in Christian art and of royalty in French heraldry. Read as the Hungarian Lilla, it is a coinage by an eighteenth-century poet, possibly built on Lidia. Both routes reached American records.
How the name formed
- lilium
- Lily
- Lilla
Related forms: Lilla · Lilla · Lila · Lilla
Pronouncing Lilla
LIL-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Hungarian says it the same way with a crisper double l.
Nicknames for Lilla
Moderate
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
- 191885 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #261reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%26 in 2025, from 26
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.
Lilla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lilla in Hungarian — same name
- Lilla in Italian — same name
- Lila in English — spelling variant
- Lilla in Swedish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Florida.
Lillas among us
people named Lilla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Lilla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lilla
- #4987
- Lilla on the 2025 chart
- #19
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lilla went to 26 girls in 2025, but Lyla, Lilah and Lila 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 — 4,968 places above the chart.
and 3 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 227 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,818 for Lilla 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
Fashion outlook
Lilla 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 Lilla is headed
Lilla 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.
Lilla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lilla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The lily meaning is concrete and carries a deep symbolic history.
- It is a living name in Hungarian, Italian and Swedish.
- Soft throughout and easy for a very young child to say.
- Lila and Lilla are easily confused and have partly different origins.
- It is period-coded to the late nineteenth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Lilla
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lillas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Lilla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lilla?
- Lilla is one of 6 recorded spellings. Lyla is the more common one — 3,089 births in 2025 against 26 for Lilla.
- How popular is the name Lilla in 2025?
- Lilla ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lilla?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Lilla — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lilla with classmates?
- Lilla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lilla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Mccall#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lilla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lilla and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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