Lilly
Feminine · “The lily flower”
Lilly is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 66,728 girls against 24 boys since 1880.
Lilly is the flower spelled with a double L — the same lilium the Romans grew, the same white bloom painters put in the hands of angels. It has spent centuries doing double duty: a flower borrowed as a name, and a pet form clipped off the long end of Elizabeth and Lillian. Two soft syllables, no hard sounds anywhere in it.
How old is the name Lilly?
Lilly was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lilly alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 55,500 people named Lilly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lilly most popular?
Lilly peaked in 2011, reaching #103 nationally. Today it ranks #252, 149 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lilly appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From leirion to Lilly
The story of Lilly
The lily was a name for the flower in English long before it was a name for a person: Old English took lilie straight from Latin lilium. As a personal name it grew from two directions at once — as an affectionate clipping of Elizabeth and Lillian, in use for centuries, and as one of the flower names English speakers adopted with real enthusiasm in the nineteenth century, alongside Rose, Violet and Daisy. The double-L spelling follows the pattern of the surname Lilly and of Lillian, and it settled in as a standard alternative rather than a modern respelling. German and Scandinavian families adopted Lilly on their own terms, and it remains at home there.
Meaning
The lily flower
The word reached English as Latin lilium, which the Romans took from Greek leirion. Lilly also works as a short form of Elizabeth and of Lillian, so a child called Lilly may be arriving by either road — the flower or the abbreviation.
How the name formed
- leirion
- lilium
- lilie
- Lily
- Lilly
Related forms: Lily · Lilli · Lili · Liliya · Lilia · Liliana
Pronouncing Lilly
LIL-ee
Stress on the first syllable. Lilly, Lily and Lillie all sound identical, so the spelling is the only thing that distinguishes them out loud.
Nicknames for Lilly
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
- 20102,891 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #103reached in 2011
- Change vs 2022
- −7.4%1,218 in 2025, from 1,315
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.
Lilly in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lily in English — spelling variant
- Lilli in German — spelling variant
- Lili in French — spelling variant
- Liliya in Russian — transliteration
- Lilia in Spanish — related form
- Liliana in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida. International figures from National Records of Scotland. Sources
Lillys among us
people named Lilly are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,320 born in 2025 was named Lilly
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lilly
- #252
- Lilly on the 2025 chart
- #13
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lilly went to 1,218 girls in 2025, but Lily and Lili are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 7,989, which makes it the 13th most-given girls’ name of the year — 239 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 201 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,320 for Lilly 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 Becky test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lilly's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Becky climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Becky's path sketches the road Lilly is walking now.
Lilly 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 Lilly is headed
Lilly 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.
Lilly beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lilly in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Instantly readable and instantly pronounceable in English — nobody has to be taught how to say it.
- A long unbroken record on US charts, without ever having been the name everyone in the room had.
- Recognized across German, Scandinavian and other European naming traditions in almost this exact form.
- Comes with an established short form, Lil, and also serves as the everyday name for a formal Lillian or Elizabeth.
- Lily is the more familiar spelling in the US, so Lilly will be written the other way on forms, name tags and greetings fairly often. Most families settle into correcting it once and letting the rest go.
- The sound is more common than this particular spelling. Lila, Lilah, Lillian and Lily all circulate, so a Lilly may share a playground with near-twins even while being the only Lilly.
- Lilly is also a well-known American surname and pharmaceutical company name, which occasionally comes up in adult professional settings — a passing remark rather than a real obstacle.
- Every variant is pronounced the same way, which means a misspelling never changes how the name is said aloud.
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What they receive
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Lilly
Feminine · #252 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lillys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 55,500 people named Lilly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lilly?
- Lilly is one of 3 recorded spellings. Lily is the more common one — 6,673 births in 2025 against 1,218 for Lilly.
- How popular is the name Lilly in 2025?
- Lilly ranks #252 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,218 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lilly?
- About 1 in every 1,320 US girls born in 2025 was named Lilly — 1,218 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lilly with classmates?
- Lilly will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lilly
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosemary#251 · Kailani#253 · Rachel#250 · Faith#254 · Kaylee#255 · Rowan#249 · Reagan#248 · Juliana#256
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lilly? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lilly 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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