Lilyana
Feminine · Latin roots · “Lily”
Lilyana is the lily made long — the Latin lilium stretched into a Romance name that Italy, Spain, Poland and Romania have all kept in circulation. The same spelling arrives in the US by a second road, as the standard transliteration of the Bulgarian Лиляна. Four syllables, with the stress landing on the third, so it ends in a soft rolling fall rather than a stop.
How old is the name Lilyana?
Lilyana first appears in US birth records in 1981 — 44 years ago. The typical Lilyana is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 9,800 people named Lilyana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lilyana most popular?
Lilyana peaked in 2011, reaching #472 nationally. Today it ranks #1047, 575 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lilyana appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From lilium (Latin) to Lilyana
The story of Lilyana
The lily runs deep in European naming: lilium in Latin, the flower of medieval religious painting, and by the Renaissance a name element in its own right. Liliana emerged as the fully Latinate form and settled into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and Polish use, where it remains ordinary and unremarkable in the best sense. Lilyana is the American respelling, folding the familiar English Lily into the front of the word so that the whole name reads on sight. It is also the usual way Bulgarian and Macedonian Лиляна is written in Latin letters, which means two quite different families can arrive at this exact spelling from opposite directions.
Meaning
Lily, from Latin lilium
Liliana and its variants are built on lilium, the Latin word for the lily, with the -ana ending that Latin gave to so many women's names. The related English Lillian has a second documented route as a medieval pet form of Elizabeth, but the Romance Liliana line goes straight to the flower.
How the name formed
- liliumLatin
- Liliana
- Lillian
- Lilyana
Related forms: Liliana · Liliana · Liliana · Liliana · Лиляна · Liliane
Pronouncing Lilyana
lil-ee-AH-nuh
Stress falls on the third syllable. Some American families say lil-ee-ANN-uh instead, with a flat middle vowel; both are in ordinary use, so it is worth deciding early which one you will correct people to.
Nicknames for Lilyana
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
- 1981
- Most girls named
- 2012650 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #472reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −20.5%237 in 2025, from 298
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.
Lilyana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Liliana in Italian — same name
- Liliana in Spanish — same name
- Liliana in Romanian — same name
- Liliana in Polish — same name
- Лиляна in Bulgarian — transliteration
- Liliane in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Lilyanas among us
people named Lilyana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,782 born in 2025 was named Lilyana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lilyana
- #1047
- Lilyana on the 2025 chart
- #48
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lilyana went to 237 girls in 2025, but Liliana, Lilliana and Lilianna 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 — 999 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 6,782 for Lilyana 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 Breanne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lilyana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Breanne climbed just as high around 1991, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Breanne's path sketches the road Lilyana is walking now.
Lilyana 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 Lilyana is headed
Lilyana 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.
Lilyana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lilyana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Contains Lily whole and unaltered, so a widely known short form is built in from the first day.
- The spelling is transparent to English readers — Lily plus -ana — which keeps first-sight pronunciation close to right.
- Liliana is everyday in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and Polish, so the name travels without translation.
- Doubles as the standard Latin-letter form of Bulgarian Лиляна, giving it a genuine footing in two separate naming traditions.
- Offers short forms at several lengths — Lily, Ana, Lil, Yana — rather than only one.
- The spelling competes with Liliana, Lilliana, Lilianna and Lilyanna. Expect to spell it out often, and expect forms to come back with an i where the y should be.
- The wider Lily family is heavily used right now, so even as the only Lilyana in a school she may share the playground call of Lily with several other children.
- The stressed vowel wobbles between AH and ANN depending on who is reading. Neither is wrong, which means the correction never quite finishes.
- Its American record is short and its wave recent, so it currently sits with one generation rather than reading as an heirloom name — though Liliana behind it is centuries old.
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What they receive
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Lilyana
Feminine · Latin roots · #1047 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lilyanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,800 people named Lilyana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lilyana?
- Lilyana is one of 8 recorded spellings. Liliana is the more common one — 3,118 births in 2025 against 237 for Lilyana.
- How popular is the name Lilyana in 2025?
- Lilyana ranks #1047 among US girl names in 2025, with 237 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lilyana?
- About 1 in every 6,782 US girls born in 2025 was named Lilyana — 237 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lilyana with classmates?
- Lilyana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lilyana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosalyn#1047 · Harlee#1047 · Dafne#1047 · Inara#1047 · Eimy#1043 · Lorraine#1043 · Whitney#1043 · Paisleigh#1043
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lilyana? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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