Lilla
A feminine diminutive of the name Eliza, of Germanic origin meaning "consecrated to God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,323 living Americans carry the first name Lilla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lilla today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lilla births was 1918 (85 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lilla. 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 Lilla with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 259,074 Americans
Peak year
1918
85 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,328
Tracked since 1880
Census
Lilla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,670 people with the first name Lilla, which placed it at #8,642 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
#8,642
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,670 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lilla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilla is White at 73.2%. The next largest groups are Black (13.2%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Lilla 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 Lilla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.2% · 1,223
- Black or African American13.2% · 221
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 109
- Two or more races4.5% · 75
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 7
Popularity
Lilla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lilla from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 657 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lilla 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 Lilla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lillas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Georgia, Alabama, Texas recorded the most babies named Lilla, while Mississippi, Louisiana, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 77 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lilla
The name Lilla has its origins in the Scandinavian languages, particularly Swedish and Norwegian. It is a diminutive form derived from the Old Norse name Lilja, which means "lily" and is related to the flower. The name can be traced back to the Viking Age and the early medieval period in Northern Europe.
In the 13th century, Lilla appeared as a Swedish feminine name, often used as a shortened version of longer names like Liljekrona or Lilljecrona. It was also a common pet name or hypocoristic form of names like Cecilia or Petronilla. The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages and was widely used among the Swedish nobility and upper classes.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Lilla can be found in the 14th-century Swedish ballad "Lilla Gunnar Gröningsson," which tells the story of a young man named Gunnar. The name Lilla was likely used as a term of endearment or a diminutive form in this context.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Lilla. One of the earliest was Lilla Cederhielm (1650-1732), a Swedish countess and lady-in-waiting to Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden. Another prominent figure was Lilla Cabot Perry (1848-1933), an American artist and writer known for her portraits and landscape paintings.
In the 19th century, Lilla Hyttén (1838-1899) was a Swedish actress and singer who performed in numerous plays and operettas. Lilla Ziedner (1858-1928) was a Swedish writer and feminist activist, known for her works addressing women's rights and social issues.
The name Lilla also appears in literary works, such as the 1908 novel "Lilla Frök" by Swedish author Elin Wägner (1882-1949), which explores themes of gender roles and societal expectations.
While the name Lilla is predominantly Scandinavian in origin, it has also been used in other parts of Europe, particularly in German-speaking regions, where it is sometimes spelled as Lilli or Lili. However, its primary association remains with the Nordic countries and their cultural heritage.
People
Lilla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lilla 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
Lilla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lilla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,323 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lilla 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 259,074 US residents.
Is Lilla a common name?
We classify Lilla as "Rare". It ranks above 91.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,414 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lilla most popular?
The single biggest year for Lilla was 1918, when 85 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lilla is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lilla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,670 people with the name Lilla, or 0.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,642 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 Lilla 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 Lilla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lilla appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,666 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 Lilla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilla is White at 73.2%. The next largest groups are Black (13.2%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Lilla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lilla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.2% (1,223 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 Lilla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lilla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lilla 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 Lilla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lilla 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 Lilla 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 Lilla as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.