Lily
Feminine · “The lily flower”
Lily is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 189,644 girls against 145 boys since 1880.
Lily is the English flower name, straight from the Latin lilium — the white bloom painters put in the hand of the angel in Annunciation scenes, and the flower the Song of Songs praises. It is two easy syllables, both light, with nothing in it a small child cannot say. It charts not only in the United States but in England and Wales, Scotland, Canada and France.
How old is the name Lily?
Lily was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lily alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 177,000 people named Lily are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lily most popular?
Lily peaked in 2011, reaching #15 nationally. Today it ranks #18, 3 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lily appears on these lists:
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- Nature names in real use
- America's top 100 names right now
- Gorgeous — and about to be everywhere
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- all guides
Works in French families too:
Where it comes from
From Lilium to Lily
The story of Lily
The flower word came into English from Latin lilium, itself connected to Greek leirion, and for centuries it was a plant, not a person. The lily carried heavy symbolic freight in medieval and Renaissance Europe — the white Madonna lily of Christian art, the stylized fleur-de-lis of the French crown — which kept the word in constant view. When flower names became fashionable for girls in the English-speaking world in the nineteenth century, Lily moved from the garden to the baptismal register alongside Rose, Violet and Daisy. It has been in continuous use since, reinforced by the longer Lilian and Lillian, for which Lily has always served as the everyday short form.
Meaning
The lily flower, from Latin lilium
The Latin lilium reached English as the flower name lily, and the given name comes directly from it. Lily also works as a short form of Lilian, Lillian and Liliana, so some bearers arrive at it from that side rather than from the flower.
Cultural footprint
Lily Collins (b. 1989) — Star of Emily in Paris, daughter of Phil Collins
Lily Tomlin (b. 1939) — Comedy trailblazer with Tonys, Emmys, and a Grammy
Lily James (b. 1989) — Played Cinderella in Disney's live-action remake
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Lilium
- Lilie
- Lilian
- Lily
Related forms: Liliana · Liliane · Liliya · Lilie · Lilja · Lilly
Pronouncing Lily
LIL-ee
Stress on the first syllable. The pronunciation is the same in American and British English, and speakers of most languages manage it without instruction.
Nicknames for Lily
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
- 20107,992 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #15reached in 2011
- Change vs 2022
- +11.0%6,673 in 2025, from 6,012
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.
Lily in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Liliana in Italian, Spanish — related form
- Liliane in French — related form
- Liliya in Russian — transliteration
- Lilie in German — related form
- Lilja in Icelandic, Swedish — related form
- Lilly in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Statistics Canada, INSEE. Sources
Lilys among us
people named Lily are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 241 born in 2025 was named Lily
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lily
- #18
- Lily on the 2025 chart
- #13
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lily went to 6,673 girls in 2025, but Lilly 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 — 5 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 241 for Lily 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 Chelsea test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lily's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Chelsea climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Chelsea's path sketches the road Lily is walking now.
Lily 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 Lily is headed
Lily 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.
Lily beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lily in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Needs no spelling out in the English-speaking world: the flower is the word, so most people write it correctly on the first hearing.
- Recognized across borders — it charts in Britain, Scotland, Canada and France, and has close cousins in Italian, Russian and Scandinavian.
- Two short syllables that a toddler can pronounce, and that survive being shouted across a playground.
- Works as the informal form of Lilian, Lillian or Liliana if you want a longer name on the birth certificate.
- The spelling competes with Lilly and Lillie, and with Lila, Lilah and Lyla nearby in sound. Expect the occasional correction, and expect similar names in the same room.
- It has been climbing steadily rather than fading, so a Lily is likely to meet other girls with the same name or a near-match at some point.
- The short form Lil is also a familiar prefix in hip-hop stage names, which some children find funny for a while.
- The flower association is strong and pleasant, but it is fixed: this is a name that will always read as the bloom first.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Lily to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lily
Feminine · #18 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lilys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 177,000 people named Lily are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lily?
- Lily is the most-used spelling in US records — 6,673 of the 7,989 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Lilly and Lili.
- How popular is the name Lily in 2025?
- Lily ranks #18 among US girl names in 2025, with 6,673 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Lily?
- About 1 in every 241 US girls born in 2025 was named Lily — 6,673 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lily with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 10 classrooms will have a child named Lily.
Ranked beside Lily
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elizabeth#17 · Camila#19 · Nora#20 · Harper#16 · Aurora#15 · Hazel#21 · Ailany#14 · Penelope#22
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lily? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lily and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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