Pilar

Spellings & scripts●

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 12 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◐

Pilar is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name152K records spelled Pilar9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Spain, Venezuela, Peru

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Pílar, Pilař, Pilár

• French given name22K records spelled Pilar4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, United States, Peru

  Also written Pîlar, Pïlar, Pilař

• a separate given name20K records spelled Pilar6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Spain, Peru, United Kingdom

  Also written Pïlar, Pilař, Pílar, Pilar̆, Pîlar

• Bulgarian given name18K records spelled Pilar10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, United States, Peru, Argentina

  Languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian

  Also written Пилар, Pilâr, Pilař

• Lao given name6.8K records spelled Pilar17 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, Spain, Chile, Peru

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written ปลาร, พิลารี, ปิลาร์, พลาร, ปลารี

• Russian given name2.2K records spelled Pilar17 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, United States, Peru, Ukraine

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian

  Also written Пілар, Пилар, Піляр, Pílar, Piliar

• Polish given name1.9K records spelled Pilar3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, Poland, United States, Peru

  Also written Pîlär, Pilař

• Romanian given name1.8K records spelled Pilar2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, Peru, United States, Ecuador

  Also written Pïlăr

58 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●

Pilar 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 Spanish, pillar, pier, mainstay

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

• In Spanish, Del latín pila ‘pila, pilastra, pilar’; advocación aragonesa de la Virgen del Pilar.

  as a name·Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios

• In English, Spanish; 'supportive pillar'

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In German, weibl. Vom. spanischer Herkunft (span. päar »Pfeiler«). Der Name geht zurück auf die »Virgen del Pilar« (»die [heilige] Jungfrau von dem Pfeiler«), ein Muttergottesbild auf einem Pfeiler, das in Zaragoza (Spanien) verehrt wird (Fest am 12. Oktober). Die bildliche Darstellung bezieht sich auf eine

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Spanish: name referring to a title of the Virgin Mary, Nuestra Señora del Pilar ‘Our Lady of the Pillar’. The story is that in AD 40 the Virgin appeared, standing on a pillar, to St James the Greater at Saragossa. The vocabulary word pilar is masculine, but this has not inhibited its use as a feminine given name. Pet forms: Pili (most commonly found in the combination Maripili); Pilita, Piluca .

  as a word

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) — 122 years between 1896–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• María Teresa de Silva, 13th Duchess of Albab. 1762ESnot in their usual nameSpanish aristocrat (1762-1802)
• Pilar Lorengarb. 1928ESSpanish operatic soprano
• Pilar Mercedes Miró Romerob. 1940ESFilm director, Screenwriter (1940-1997)
• Pilar Raholab. 1958ESSpanish politician
• Maria Canals Barrerab. 1966USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
• Pilar Castrob. 1970ESSpanish actress
• Pilar Padillab. 1970MXactor
• Pilar Rubiob. 1978ESSpanish reporter and TV presenter
• Pili Peñab. 1986ESnot in their usual nameSpanish water polo player
• Pilar Fogliatib. 1992ITItalian actress

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 · 946 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Pilar?

We estimate roughly 141 thousand people bear Pilar (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.

In which country does Pilar have the most bearers?

Pilar is most frequently recorded in Peru, where it is most often spelled pilar.

How common is Pilar compared with other names?

In Peru, Pilar is the 45th most common given name of 221,790 given names recorded there.

Is Pilar a male or female name?

Pilar 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 Pilar mean?

Recorded meaning: Marian name honouring Nuestra Senora del Pilar ‘Our Lady of the Pillar’, referring to an alleged appearance of the Virgin standing on a pillar to St James the Greater at Saragossa.