Lilli
A feminine name of German origin meaning "memorial flower".
Name Census estimates that about 3,130 living Americans carry the first name Lilli. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lilli today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lilli births was 2006 (174 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lilli. 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 Lilli with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.1K
~ 1 in 109,506 Americans
Peak year
2006
174 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,998
Tracked since 1912
Census
Lilli in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,761 people with the first name Lilli, which placed it at #4,804 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
#4,804
National first-name rank
People counted
3.8K
3,761 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lilli
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilli is White at 76.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). 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 Lilli 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 Lilli at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.9% · 2,893
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 370
- Two or more races5.7% · 215
- Black or African American3.8% · 142
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 113
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 28
Popularity
Lilli: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lilli from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,302 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lilli 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 Lilli during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lillis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Lilli, while West Virginia, Oregon, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 39 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lilli
The name Lilli has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the Old German word "lind" or "lint," meaning "soft" or "tender." It is a diminutive form of the name Lilia, which is derived from the Latin name Lilium, meaning "lily." The name emerged in the Middle Ages and was particularly popular in German-speaking regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lilli can be found in the medieval German epic poem, the Nibelungenlied, where it was mentioned as the name of a minor character. Additionally, the name appears in various German folk tales and legends from the 13th and 14th centuries.
In the 16th century, Lilli gained popularity among the German nobility and aristocracy. One notable figure from this era was Lilli von Ravensberg (1508-1580), a German noblewoman and landowner. She played a significant role in the Reformation movement and was a prominent supporter of the Protestant cause.
During the Renaissance period, the name Lilli was associated with art and culture. Lilli Terwesten (1609-1675) was a Dutch Golden Age painter known for her still-life paintings and portraits. Her works were highly acclaimed during her lifetime and are now preserved in various museums across Europe.
In the 19th century, the name Lilli gained further prominence with the rise of the German literary movement known as Romanticism. Lilli Petri (1798-1862) was a German writer and poet who was part of the Romantic circle in Berlin. Her works explored themes of nature, love, and the human condition.
Another notable figure was Lilli Lehmann (1848-1929), a German operatic soprano who was one of the leading Wagner sopranos of her time. She was widely acclaimed for her interpretations of roles in operas such as Tristan und Isolde and Die Walküre.
People
Lilli + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lilli 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
Lilli: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lilli?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,130 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lilli 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 109,506 US residents.
Is Lilli a common name?
We classify Lilli as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,344 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lilli most popular?
The single biggest year for Lilli was 2006, when 174 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lilli is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lilli in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,761 people with the name Lilli, or 1.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,804 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 Lilli 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 Lilli?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lilli appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,758 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 Lilli?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilli is White at 76.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). 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 Lilli most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lilli in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.9% (2,893 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 Lilli in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lilli a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lilli 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 Lilli still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lilli 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 Lilli 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 are called Lilli?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.