Humanverse

Lila vs Lillar

American parents have registered 76,550 Lilas since 1880, against 104 Lillars. Lila is still ahead, with 1,670 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lila against Lillar, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lila Lillar

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Lila has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1894, when Lila had 161 and Lillar had 7.

Side by side

  Lila Lillar
Total US births 76,550104
Most in one year 1,96910
Babies in 2025 1,670under 5
Estimated living today 47,0004
Median age today 1578
Peak year 20101918
Best rank 155th girls3,024th girls
Rank in 2025 186thunranked
First recorded 18801894
Girls / boys 76,493 / 57104 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Lillars alive today are over 78; half the Lilas are over 15. That is 63 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Lila and Lillar.