Lilith: Meaning of Baby Name Lilith

About the Name Lilith

Lilith descends from the Akkadian lilītu, possibly from the Sumerian līl (wind, air, spirit) — yielding "night spirit" or "creature of the night." The name has ancient Near Eastern mythological origins, where Lilith appears in Mesopotamian texts as a class of female demons associated with night and the wilderness.

The name's overwhelming Jewish mythological anchor is Lilith, the figure in Jewish folklore (especially the medieval Alphabet of Sirach) traditionally identified as Adam's first wife, created equal to him and refusing to subordinate herself, who left the Garden of Eden to become a powerful supernatural figure. Lilith is mentioned briefly in the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah 34:14) and is variously interpreted as a night creature or a class of demons. In modern Jewish feminist thought, Lilith has been reclaimed as a symbol of female autonomy and equality.

Notable contemporary bearers include the fictional Lilith of various contemporary novels, comics, and films; the iconic Lilith Sternin of NBC's Frasier (1993–2004, the cold-spirited psychiatrist played by Bebe Neuwirth); and the contemporary American actress Lilith Stangenberg. Lilith's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2000 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Mesopotamian-Jewish-mythological pedigree, the in-built distinctive supernatural-feminist register, and the popular two-syllable structure with the distinctive L-L-T consonant rhythm. The name reads as both classical-mythological and contemporary American. Common nicknames Lily (the dominant warm short form, casual and warm — also a popular standalone name on its own), Lil, and the rare Lith each carry distinct registers; international forms include Lilit (Hebrew original), Lilith (essentially identical across European languages), and the original Akkadian lilītu.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Lilith

1,531

Hebrew baby names in our dictionary

836

Hebrew female names

221

6-letter L-names in our dictionary

530

L-female names total

2010–2025

years of US SSA records (16 total)

11,750

total US births named Lilith (all years)

US Popularity History (2010–2025)

📈 Rising: Lilith climbed 39 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#316 in 2020 → #277 in 2025).

Annual US births named Lilith by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2023 with 1,298 girls named Lilith (girl rank #232 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #277 for girls (1,111 US births). That's 45 places below its 2023 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Lilith Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Lilith the strongest states are Alaska, South Dakota, Maine.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Alaska	#124	19
2	South Dakota	#164	28
3	Maine	#172	42
4	New Hampshire	#185	34
5	Montana	#208	22
6	West Virginia	#208	85
7	Oklahoma	#210	183
8	New Mexico	#213	85
9	Nevada	#241	130
10	Oregon	#251	155

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	New Jersey	#689	84
2	New York	#598	274
3	Minnesota	#583	95
4	Massachusetts	#562	81
5	Maryland	#538	92
6	Louisiana	#522	99
7	Mississippi	#487	49
8	California	#474	767
9	Georgia	#458	227
10	Connecticut	#457	44

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Lilith in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Looking for names like Lilith?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

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Compare Lilith to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Lilith against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Lilith vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Lilith vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Lilith vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Lilith vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Lilith vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Lilith vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Lilith vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Lilith vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

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