Lilly
- Pronunciation
- [Li-lly]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- The Flower Lily Is A Symbol Of Innocence: Purity And Beauty.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Lilly
Lilly is the modern American spelling variant of Lily (see separate entry on Lily for the broader flower-name etymology and Christian-symbolic register). The double-L spelling Lilly emerged in 19th-century English-speaking naming and has its own SSA tracking distinct from the more common Lily.
The two spellings (Lily and Lilly) collectively account for over 6,000 baby girls per year in peak years, making them one of the most visible name-spelling pairs in modern American naming. The Lilly spelling specifically appeals to parents seeking a slightly more visually distinctive form than the more common Lily. The Lilly spelling is also associated with the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company (founded 1876 by Civil War veteran Colonel Eli Lilly), which gave the surname an inherent American-business register.
Notable bearers include American jurist Lilly Ledbetter (1938–2024, the worker whose pay-discrimination lawsuit produced the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act), American fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer (1931–2013, founder of the iconic Florida resort-wear brand whose bright pink-and-green prints became synonymous with American preppy aesthetic), and contemporary actress Lilly Singh. Lilly's American climb has paralleled Lily's, currently sitting in the US top 200 girls' rank. The name's appeal is the same as the underlying Lily — botanical simplicity, religious-symbolic depth, two short syllables — combined with the slightly more visually distinctive double-L spelling. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — Lil and the rare Lillybug each occasionally appear; the alternate spelling Lily (single L) has its own SSA tracking. There are no significant international variants since both Lily and Lilly are essentially English-language; the longer formal forms include Lillian, Liliana, and Lilith.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Lilly
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Lilly by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2010 with 2,890 girls named Lilly (girl rank #106 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #252 for girls (1,218 US births). That's 146 places below its 2010 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.
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Where in the US Is Lilly 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 Lilly the strongest states are Kentucky, West Virginia, Alaska.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kentucky | #98 | 394 |
| 2 | West Virginia | #121 | 133 |
| 3 | Alaska | #124 | 42 |
| 4 | Arkansas | #135 | 206 |
| 5 | Alabama | #138 | 309 |
| 6 | Rhode Island | #140 | 29 |
| 7 | Montana | #140 | 61 |
| 8 | North Dakota | #142 | 60 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | #143 | 246 |
| 10 | Tennessee | #144 | 467 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Jersey | #375 | 217 |
| 2 | New York | #322 | 525 |
| 3 | California | #312 | 1,079 |
| 4 | Kansas | #304 | 116 |
| 5 | Maryland | #289 | 188 |
| 6 | Connecticut | #284 | 107 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | #280 | 198 |
| 8 | Illinois | #275 | 407 |
| 9 | Minnesota | #274 | 209 |
| 10 | Nebraska | #273 | 75 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Lilly in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lila | Feminine Of Lyle From The Island. Variant Of Delilah. | Female | English |
| Lili | The Flower Lily Is A Symbol Of Innocence: Purity And Beauty. | Female | French |
| Lilia | Form Of Lilac; Having A Bluish Color LUBMILLA | Female | Russian |
| Lilli | The Flower Lily Is A Symbol Of Innocence: Purity And Beauty. | Female | German |
| Lillie | The Flower Lily Is A Symbol Of Innocence: Purity And Beauty. | Female | English |
Looking for names like Lilly?
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.
Compare Lilly to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Lilly against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).