Lilly

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Lee in US United States, KR South Korea, GB United Kingdom and 7 more, Li in CN China, FR France, ES Spain, Leila in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, GE Georgia and Lili in HU Hungary, PE Peru, MX Mexico.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Lilly is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name50K records spelled Lilly12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Peru, Brazil, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Lîlly, Lillÿ, Lílly, Ĺïļļý, Lillý

• French given name32K records spelled Lilly9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Spain, Belgium

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Lillÿ, Ĺillý, Lïlly, Lîllŷ, Lîllÿ

• Hindi given name22K records spelled Lilly29 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Bangladesh

  Languages: Hindi, Bangla, Sinhala

  Also written Lili, Lily, লিলি, Lillie, Lilley

• a separate given name13K records spelled Lilly2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Lillý

• Finnish given name3.9K records spelled Lilly3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, United States, Sweden, India

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Lïllÿ

• Indonesian given name3.1K records spelled Lilly2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Indonesia, Malaysia

  Also written Lïlly

63 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Lilly is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, zabeth (see Hibbs 2). 2. nickname for someone with very fair hair or skin, from

  as a name·A dictionary of surnames

• In German, a diminutive of the female given name Elisabeth

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Swedish, Lilly (m.fl. former) är ursprungligen engelska smekformer till → Elisabeth. I modern engelska uppfattas Lily som växtbeteckningen lily ’lilja’. Namnet har varit populärt under de senaste årtiondena, kanske inspirerat av gestalten Lily Potter i böckerna och filmerna om Harry Potter. I den rikssvenska almanackan 6 september och i den finlands svenska 20 maj.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In English, US pharmaceutical firm

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In Swedish, a female given name, from a pet form of Elisabeth or any name with the syllable -li- such as Cecilia, Julia or Karolina

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Lilly Reichb. 1885DEGerman designer (1885–1947)
• Lilly Wachowskib. 1967USPolish-American film director
• Carina Bergb. 1977SEnot in their usual nameSwedish radio & TV personality
• Bijou Phillipsb. 1980USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (born 1980)
• Lilly Singhb. 1988CACanadian YouTube personality, vlogger and comedian
• Magdalena Erikssonb. 1993SEnot in their usual nameSwedish footballer
• Madison Baileyb. 1999USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
• Lilly Krugb. 2001DEGerman film and television actress and social media celebrity
• Lilly Liefersb. 2002DEGerman actress
• Lilly Aspellb. 2007GBBritish actress and show jumper

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,073 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Lilly?

We estimate roughly 724 thousand people bear Lilly (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Lilly have the most bearers?

Lilly is most frequently recorded in China, where it is most often spelled li.

How common is Lilly compared with other names?

In China, Lilly is the 5th most common surname of 134,008 surnames recorded there.

Is Lilly a male or female name?

Lilly is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Lilly mean?

Recorded meaning: from the female personal name Lilly, a pet form of Elizabeth; also from place names or a nickname for fair hair/complexion.