Lilya
Feminine · “lily”
Lilya is the Slavic form of the lily, and the flower carries a different weight in Russian than in western Europe.
How old is the name Lilya?
Lilya first appears in US birth records in 1993 — 32 years ago. The typical Lilya is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Lilya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lilya most popular?
Lilya peaked in 2021, reaching #4014 nationally. Today it ranks #4661, 647 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lilium to Lilya
Our story of Lilya
Ours, offered as ours. Russian took a great many flower names as given names in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries — Liliya, Roza, Violetta, Margarita — at a time when western naming was still mostly saints and dynasties. Some of them arrived through French novels and some through the Soviet enthusiasm for names outside the church calendar entirely. Lilya belongs to that layer, and it sounds modern in Russian in a way Lily does not in English.
Meaning
lily
From Russian and Ukrainian liliya, from Latin lilium; the Slavic languages borrowed the flower name along with the plant. The name is used across Russia, Ukraine and the Caucasus, and separately in Hebrew as Lilia.
How the name formed
- lilium
- liliya
Related forms: Лилия · Лілія · Lilia
Pronouncing Lilya
LEEL-yah
Two syllables, first stressed. Some families say lee-LEE-ah.
Nicknames for Lilya
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
- 1993
- Most girls named
- 202136 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4014reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −6.5%29 in 2025, from 31
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.
Lilya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Лилия in Russian — transliteration
- Лілія in Ukrainian — same name
- Lilia in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Florida.
Lilyas among us
people named Lilya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 55,423 born in 2025 was named Lilya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lilya
- #4661
- Lilya on the 2025 chart
- #555
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lilya went to 29 girls in 2025, but Lilia, Lillia and Liliya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 444, which makes it the 555th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,106 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,620 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 55,423 for Lilya 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 Lisett test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lilya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lisett climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lisett's path sketches the road Lilya is walking now.
Lilya 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 Lilya is headed
Lilya 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.
Lilya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lilya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning in a flower with an enormous symbolic record.
- Lily is available immediately as an ordinary English form.
- Five letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- The syllable count is unsettled between two and three in English.
- Lilya, Lilia, Liliya and Lily are all close and get confused.
- The Slavic and English forms sound noticeably different.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Lilya
Feminine · #4661 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lilyas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Lilya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lilya?
- Lilya is one of 7 recorded spellings. Lilia is the more common one — 315 births in 2025 against 29 for Lilya.
- How popular is the name Lilya in 2025?
- Lilya ranks #4661 among US girl names in 2025, with 29 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lilya?
- About 1 in every 55,423 US girls born in 2025 was named Lilya — 29 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lilya with classmates?
- Lilya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lilya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ellenor#4661 · Roselie#4661 · Marni#4661 · Menucha#4661 · Infinity#4661 · Railyn#4661 · Jaiya#4661 · Zada#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lilya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lilya 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. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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