Lily (name)


Lily is a feminine given name usually derived from lily, the flower. The name became particularly popular along with other flower names for girls during the 1800s and early 1900s. The lily also has associations with and has been symbolic of innocence and purity in Christian art. Names beginning with or containing the letter L have also been particularly fashionable for girls. It is also occasionally used as a diminutive for other names such as Elizabeth.
The popularity of the name increased steadily in most countries in western Europe and English-speaking countries during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The name is often used in combination with other names, sometimes spelled with a hyphen and sometimes without. Well-used combination names in use in countries such as Canada and the United States include those influenced by Lillian or Liliana or considered a combination of Lily and the names Anna, Ann, or Anne, such as Liliann, Lilianna, Lili-Ann, Lili-Anne, Lillianna, Lillianne, Lillyana, Lillyann, Lilly-Ann, Lillyanna, Lillyanne, Lilly-Anne, Lilyana, Lilyanna, Lily-Anne and Lily-Ann.
Other popular combination names in use include Lily-Rose, a combination of Lily and the name Rose, which is particularly well used in Quebec, Canada, where it was the 65th most popular name for newborn girls in 2022 and ranked among the top 300 names overall for girls in Canada in 2021, placing 297th on the popularity chart with 105 uses for Canadian girls that year, and its spelling variants Lili-Rose, which had nine uses in Canada in 2021, and Lilirose, Lilly-Rose, and Lilyrose. The name Lilyrose or Lily-Rose is also well used in England and Wales, where it has ranked among the top 1,000 names for girls since 2001 and among the top 500 names since 2006, and in France, where it has ranked among the top 500 names for French girls since 2004. It ranked among the top 200 names for newborn girls in Belgium in 2021. The name has also seen increased use in the United States, though it has not ranked among the top 1,000 names for American girls. Thirty-five American girls were given the name Lilyrose in 2022 and eleven American girls were called Lillyrose that year.
Other related or associated names include, among others, Lilia, Lilibet, Lilibeth, Lilika, Lilith, Lilja, Lilou, and Tigerlily.

People

Fictional characters

Names with the same meaning

Some equivalents for the name Lily from other cultures include: