Humanverse

Liliann vs Lillian

American parents have registered 476,457 Lillians since 1880, against 604 Lilianns. Lillian is still ahead, with 3,966 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Liliann against Lillian, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Liliann Lillian

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

Lillian 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 1983, when Liliann had 5 and Lillian had 453.

Side by side

  Liliann Lillian
Total US births 604476,457
Most in one year 3310,075
Babies in 2025 133,966
Estimated living today 600205,000
Median age today 1417
Peak year 20131920
Best rank 4,336th girls18th girls
Rank in 2025 7,885th57th
First recorded 19831880
Girls / boys 604 / 0475,028 / 1,429

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 Lillians alive today are over 17; half the Lilianns are over 14. That is 3 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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