Lilit
A feminine name of Armenian origin meaning "luxuriant" or "beautiful".
Name Census estimates that about 353 living Americans carry the first name Lilit. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lilit today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lilit births was 2008 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lilit. 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.
People living today
353
~ 1 in 970,975 Americans
Peak year
2008
17 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,200
Tracked since 1990
Census
Lilit in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,314 people with the first name Lilit, which placed it at #10,230 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
#10,230
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,314 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
96.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lilit
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilit is White at 96.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.1%). 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 Lilit 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 Lilit at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White96.7% · 1,271
- Two or more races1.1% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 11
- Black or African American0.2% · 3
Popularity
Lilit: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lilit from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 116 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Lilit remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lilit 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 Lilit during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lilits live
Origin
Meaning and history of Lilit
The name Lilit has its origins in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, specifically in the Babylonian and Assyrian cultures dating back to around 3500 BC. It is derived from the Sumerian word "lil," meaning "air" or "wind." The name was associated with a female demon or spirit known as Lilith, who was believed to prey on pregnant women and newborn infants.
In Jewish folklore, Lilith is depicted as Adam's first wife before Eve, created from the same earth as Adam. She refused to submit to Adam and was subsequently banished from the Garden of Eden. This legend is found in the Alphabet of Ben Sira, a medieval Jewish text from the 8th or 9th century AD.
The name Lilit appears in various ancient texts, including the Babylonian Talmud and the Dead Sea Scrolls, where it is associated with nocturnal demons and spirits. In some interpretations, Lilith is portrayed as a powerful and independent figure, while in others, she is seen as a dangerous and seductive temptress.
One of the earliest known references to the name Lilit can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian epic poem from around 2100 BC. In this epic, Lilit is mentioned as a demon who haunts the wilderness.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Lilit, including:
1. Lilit Gevorgyan (born 1978), an Armenian singer and actress.
2. Lilit Hovhannisyan (born 1997), an Armenian chess player and Woman Grandmaster.
3. Lilit Makunts (born 1969), a Russian-Armenian singer and actress.
4. Lilit Galstyan (born 1992), an Armenian singer and songwriter.
5. Lilit Ter-Petrosyan (born 1976), an Armenian chess player and Woman Grandmaster.
It is worth noting that the name Lilit has been more commonly used in Armenian and Eastern European cultures, likely due to its historical and mythological roots in the region. However, it has also gained popularity in recent years as a unique and enigmatic name choice in other parts of the world.
People
Lilit + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lilit 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
Lilit: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lilit?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 353 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lilit 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 970,975 US residents.
Is Lilit a common name?
We classify Lilit as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 359 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lilit most popular?
The single biggest year for Lilit was 2008, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lilit is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lilit in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,314 people with the name Lilit, or 0.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,230 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 Lilit 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 Lilit?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lilit appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,309 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Lilit?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilit is White at 96.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.1%). 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 Lilit most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lilit in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.7% (1,271 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 Lilit in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lilit a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lilit 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 Lilit still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lilit 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 Lilit 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 Americans are named Lilit?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.