Lylah
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- "Love, Cherish, Flowers. Beautiful One, Clever One, Special."
- Origin
- English
About the Name Lylah
Lylah is a modern American spelling variant of Lila/Lyla (see separate entries on Lila and Layla for the etymology — possibly from the Persian laylā meaning "night," or from the Sanskrit līlā meaning "play" or "divine play"). The Y-with-H Lylah spelling is essentially a 21st-century American invention.
The various spellings (Lylah, Lyla, Lila, Layla) are tracked separately by SSA and represent the same underlying multi-cultural name. The Lylah spelling specifically appeals to parents seeking the most-distinctive 21st-century American form. The name has been used predominantly for girls in modern American naming.
Lylah's American climb is very recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2015 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. Notable contemporary bearers include American basketball player Lylah Vance; the contemporary fictional Lylah of various contemporary novels; and various contemporary American social media influencers. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the multi-cultural etymological flexibility (Persian/Sanskrit/Arabic), the popular two-syllable -ah ending family (Lylah, Aria, Layla, Mia), and the modern visual presence with the distinctive Y-H ending. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to multi-cultural names. The name reads as distinctly contemporary American. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — Ly (the dominant short form, casual and warm) and the rare Lala each occasionally appear; the alternate spellings Lylah, Lyla, Lila, and Layla have their own SSA tracking. International forms include laylā (Persian/Arabic original) and the broader Layla/Leila family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Lylah
US Popularity History (2009–2025)
Annual US births named Lylah by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2024 with 555 girls named Lylah (girl rank #544 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #585 for girls (503 US births). That's 41 places below its 2024 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.
Paste the snippet below on any HTML page. Includes a credit link back to 9BabyNames — please keep it intact.
Where in the US Is Lylah 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 Lylah the strongest states are West Virginia, New Mexico, Nevada.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Virginia | #235 | 26 |
| 2 | New Mexico | #285 | 40 |
| 3 | Nevada | #361 | 25 |
| 4 | Oklahoma | #453 | 80 |
| 5 | Kansas | #470 | 45 |
| 6 | Louisiana | #494 | 101 |
| 7 | Kentucky | #519 | 73 |
| 8 | Indiana | #522 | 130 |
| 9 | Connecticut | #533 | 23 |
| 10 | Ohio | #533 | 198 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Jersey | #840 | 36 |
| 2 | Maryland | #803 | 41 |
| 3 | New York | #790 | 107 |
| 4 | Georgia | #766 | 94 |
| 5 | Illinois | #695 | 140 |
| 6 | Virginia | #695 | 93 |
| 7 | Texas | #688 | 418 |
| 8 | South Carolina | #664 | 57 |
| 9 | North Carolina | #664 | 103 |
| 10 | California | #663 | 475 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Lylah in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Lylah?
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 Lylah to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Lylah against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).