Lyric
Masculine · “of the lyre”
Lyric is given to both — 4,677 boys and 20,875 girls since 1880. See Lyric as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Lyric began as a Greek adjective for poetry meant to be sung to the lyre, and it has kept that music the whole way down — through Latin, into English, and onto birth certificates. It is one of those rare word-names that needs no explaining: two light syllables, a soft L to open and a clean click to close.
How old is the name Lyric?
Lyric first appears in US birth records in 1928 — 97 years ago. The typical Lyric is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,600 people named Lyric are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lyric most popular?
Lyric peaked in 2013, reaching #799 nationally. Today it ranks #1388, 589 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lyra (Greek: lyre) to Lyric
The story of Lyric
The lyre was the small stringed instrument of ancient Greece, and lyrikos described verse composed to be sung with it rather than recited or staged. The word traveled into Latin as lyricus and reached English in the sixteenth century as a literary term, distinguishing sung poetry from epic and dramatic verse. Only much later did 'lyrics' come to mean simply the words of a song, which is the sense most people hear today. Its life as a given name is an American development, part of the long habit of naming children after plain English words, and it has appeared in the national records for generations before its recent rise.
Meaning
of the lyre; the words of a song
From Greek lyrikos, 'of the lyre'. The everyday English sense — the words of a song — grew out of that older poetic one.
How the name formed
- lyraGreek: lyre
- lyrikos
- lyricusLatin
- lyricEnglish
- Lyric
Pronouncing Lyric
LIH-rik
Said exactly like the English word: stress on the first syllable, short i. Almost no one has to be told twice.
Nicknames for Lyric
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
- 1928
- Most boys named
- 2013275 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #799reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −4.3%132 in 2025, from 138
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.
Lyric in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Lyrics among us
people named Lyric are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 12,940 born in 2025 was named Lyric
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lyric
- #1388
- Lyric on the 2025 chart
- #752
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lyric went to 132 boys in 2025, but Lyrik, Lyriq and Lyrick are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 177, which makes it the 752nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 636 places above the chart.
- Lyric132
- Lyrik29
- Lyriq11
- Lyrick5
About 1 boy in 9,650 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 12,940 for Lyric 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 Eliot test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lyric's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eliot climbed just as high around 1960, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eliot's path sketches the road Lyric is walking now.
Lyric 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 Lyric is headed
Lyric is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Lyric beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lyric in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is an ordinary English word, so the spelling and the pronunciation are already known to everyone who reads it.
- Two short syllables with a firm first-beat stress — easy to call across a room and easy for a young child to say.
- Given to both girls and boys, so it does not have to be reassigned or respelled to fit either child.
- On the American records across several decades, so it is a modern name with a real paper trail rather than a brand-new coinage.
- The great majority of Lyrics are girls. A boy named Lyric will meet people who assume otherwise from the form alone — workable, but worth expecting.
- Word names invite comment. Expect the music jokes, the occasional 'like song lyrics?', and a lifetime of people finding it a conversation opener.
- Lyrica is the brand name of a prescription drug, and Lyra is a separate and rising name. Both get confused with this one now and then, usually only on paper.
- Almost everyone carrying it is young, so it reads clearly as a name of the present moment rather than an inherited one — which cuts both ways, depending on what you want.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Lyric
Masculine · #1388 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lyrics are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,600 people named Lyric are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lyric?
- Lyric is the most-used spelling in US records — 132 of the 177 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Lyrik, Lyriq and Lyrick.
- How popular is the name Lyric in 2025?
- Lyric ranks #1388 among US boy names in 2025, with 132 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lyric?
- About 1 in every 12,940 US boys born in 2025 was named Lyric — 132 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lyric with classmates?
- Lyric will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lyric
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Graysen#1388 · Anton#1388 · Tyrone#1388 · Amar#1388 · Aviel#1393 · Jules#1393 · Aariv#1393 · Scout#1393
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lyric? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lyric and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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