Lil
A pet name meaning "little", often used as a diminutive.
Name Census estimates that about 79 living Americans carry the first name Lil. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lil today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lil births was 1957 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lil. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Lil with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Lil. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
79
~ 1 in 4,338,663 Americans
Peak year
1957
14 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
1986 SSA rank
#11,970
Tracked since 1916
Census
Lil in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,299 people with the first name Lil, which placed it at #10,326 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,326
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,299 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lil
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lil is White at 43.0%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (22.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Lil described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Lil at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.0% · 558
- Black or African American23.3% · 303
- Hispanic or Latino22.8% · 296
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.2% · 94
- Two or more races2.8% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 11
Popularity
Lil: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lil from the 1910s through to the 1980s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 45 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lil by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Lil during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lil
The name Lil originated from the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Scandinavian peoples during the Viking Age, spanning from the late 8th century to the late 11th century. It is a diminutive form of the Germanic name Lilli, which itself is derived from the Old German word "lind" meaning "soft" or "tender."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lil can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of narratives that chronicle the lives and adventures of the Norse settlers in Iceland during the 9th to 11th centuries. The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue, written in the 13th century, mentions a character named Lil, the daughter of a prominent chieftain.
In ancient Norse mythology, there is a reference to a goddess named Lil or Lili, who was associated with fertility and childbirth. She was often depicted as a young and beautiful maiden, symbolizing the renewal of life and the arrival of spring.
During the Middle Ages, the name Lil gained popularity across various regions of Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, Germany, and the Netherlands. One notable historical figure bearing this name was Lil Dagover (1887-1980), a German actress who gained fame during the era of silent films. She starred in several acclaimed movies, including "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) and "The Student of Prague" (1926).
Another notable Lil was Lil Hardin Armstrong (1898-1971), an American jazz pianist, singer, and bandleader. She was an influential figure in the early development of jazz music and is best known for her collaborations with her husband, the legendary Louis Armstrong.
In the literary world, the name Lil was immortalized by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in his fairy tale "The Elf of the Rose." The story features a character named Lil, who is a young and enchanting elf living in a rose.
Other historical figures with the name Lil include Lil Dagover (1932-2018), a Norwegian actress and singer; Lil Picard (1899-1994), a French actress and comedian; and Lil Hardin Armstrong (1898-1971), an American jazz pianist and singer.
People
Lil + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lil as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lil: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lil?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 79 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lil going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,338,663 US residents.
Is Lil a common name?
We classify Lil as "Very Rare". It ranks above 61.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 126 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lil most popular?
The single biggest year for Lil was 1957, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lil is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lil in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,299 people with the name Lil, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,326 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Lil in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Lil?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Lil on both sides of the split. Of the 1,299 people counted with this name, 379 were male (29.2%) and 920 were female (70.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Lil?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lil is White at 43.0%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (22.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Lil most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lil in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.0% (558 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Lil in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lil a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lil in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Lil still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lil in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Lil can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Lil as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Lil, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.