Lily

English flower name

"lily"

Lily Origin and Meaning

The name Lily is a girl's name of English origin meaning "lily".

Lily is the most popular of the popular delicate century-old flower names now making a return, thanks to its many irresistible attributes: a cool elegance and a lovely sound, a symbol of purity and innocence, and a role in Christian imagery.

Lily's use as a given name was a direct influence of the flower. The floral name was derived from the Latin lilium, itself derived from the Greek leirion. Lily later became an adjective to describe whiteness and purity.

Lily is a favorite of celebrity parents, including Chris O'Donnell, Kate Beckinsale, Greg Kinnear, Fred Savage, and Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis (who made it a double bouquet, with Lily-Rose). The more proper Lillian is also rising in popularity, though Lily has long stood on its own.

There were about 6000 baby girls named Lily in the US last year, but there were over 6000 named Lily, nearly 4000 called Lillian (many of whom will be called some variation of Lily), another 3000 called Liliana, 1200 named Lilith, and 400 called Lillie. Counted all together, that's more babies named a form of Lily than are given Number 1 name Olivia.

Lily is an authors' favorite, some notable example being Lily Bart, the main character of Edith Wharton's House of Mirth, Lily Owens in The Secret Life of Bees and both mother and daughter of Harry Potter. Other current bearers are Lily Tomlin, singer Lily Allen, and actress Lily James. Two one-time starbaby Lilys are now celebrities on their own: Lily Collins, daughter of Phil, and Lily Rabe, daughter of Jill Clayburgh and David Rabe.

Lily is currently quite popular throughout the English-speaking world as well as in France, Denmark, the Netherlands, and other European countries. Other possible spellings are Lilly, Lili, and Lillie.

Lily Rank in US Top 1000

# 24 in the US

Lily Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 30 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Lily

• 24 US 2024
• 30 Nameberry 2025
• 12 Canada 2023
• 15 Future 2035
• 4 England 2023
• 4 Scotland 2024
• 6 Ireland 2024
• 11 Australia 2024
• 4 New Zealand 2024
• 76 France 2023
• 35 Netherlands 2024
• 39 Sweden 2024
• 15 Denmark 2023
• 29 Belgium 2023
• 96 Switzerland 2023
• 5 Dogs 2023
• 3 Cats 2023

20 Names Similar to Lily

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Lily.

• Grace
• Rose
• Chloe
• Olivia
• Sophie
• Ella
• Emma
• Sophia
• Scarlett
• Mia
• Ava
• Isabella
• Lucy
• Stella
• Claire
• Amelia
• Charlotte
• Eva
• Emily
• Ellie

Famous People Named Lily

• Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin American actress and comedian
• Lily Jane Collins British,American actress and model; daughter of singer Phil Collins
• Lily Maud Aldridge American supermodel
• Lily Rose Beatrice Allen English singer
• Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson "Lily James" English actress
• Lily Luahana Cole English model
• Lily May Loveless English actress
• Lily Monica Donaldson English model
• Lily Rabe American actress
• Susan Mary "Lily" Yeats Irish embroiderer
• Lily Yeh Chinese artist
• Lily Camille McMenamy English model and actress
• Lily Omundson daughter of actor Timothy Omundson
• Lily Fraser (b. 1989) daughter of actors Hugh Fraser and Belinda Lang
• Lily Grace Atkinson (b. 1995) daughter of actor Rowan Atkinson
• Lily Mae Evans, English actress
• Lily Platt (b. 1995) daughter of actor Oliver Platt
• Lily Armstrong (b. 1996) daughter of actor Curtis Armstrong
• Lily "Remy" Weinstein (b. 1997) daughter of film producer Harvey Weinstein and Eve Chilton
• Lily Moore (b. 1998) daughter of guitarist Gary Moore
• Lily Anne O'Donnell (b. 1999) daughter of actor Chris O'Donnell
• Lily Rose Melody Depp (b. 1999), daughter of actor Johnny Depp and model Vanessa Paradis
• Lily Mo Beckinsale Sheen (b. 1999), daughter of actors Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen
• Lily Cye Coleman (b. 2000) daughter of composer Cy Coleman
• Lily Pearl Black (b. 2001) daughter of singer Clint Black and actress Lisa Hartman Black
• Lily Rose Purcell (b. 2003), daughter of actor Dominic Purcell; twin brother Augustus
• Lily Dolores Harris (b. 2003) daughter of actors Ed Harris and Amy Madigan
• Lily Margaret Brant (b. 2004) daughter of model Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant
• Lily Katherine Kinnear (b. 2004) daughter of actor Greg Kinnear
• Lily Rose Womack (b. 2005), daughter of actors Mark Womack and Samantha Janus
• Lily Rose Chabal (b. 2005), daughter of rugby player Sebastien Chabal
• Lily Aster Gottfried (b. 2007) daughter of American comedian Gilbert Gottfried
• Lily Aerin Savage (b. 2008) daughter of actor Fred Savage
• Lily Greenfield (b. 2009) daughter of actor Max Greenfield
• Lily Hannigan (b. 2010) daughter of actress Pia Miranda and singer Luke Hannigan of Lo,Tel
• Lily Bloom Iero (b. 2010) daughter of musician Frank Iero; twin of Cherry
• Lily Abigail Brandt (b. 2010) daughter of country music singer Paul Brandt
• Lily Bennington (b. 2011) daughter of singer Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and model Talinda Bennington; twin sister Lila
• Lily Rose Gagné (b. 2011) daughter of ice hockey player Simon Gagné
• Lily Tergesen (b. 2012) daughter of actor Lee Tergesen
• Lily Christina Lloyd (b. 2012) daughter of actor Gareth David,Lloyd
• Lily Georgina Walker (b. 2013) daughter of television personality Brooke Anderson
• Lily Forsberg (b. 2014) daughter of ice hockey player Peter Forsberg
• Lily Grace Victoria Rothschild (b. 2016) daughter of TV personality Nicky Hilton and James Rothschild

The name Lily in Pop Culture

• Lily Briscoe character in Virginia Woolf's 'To The Lighthouse'
• Lily Evans Potter mother of Harry Potter in the Harry Potter series
• Lily Luna Potter daughter of Harry Potter
• Lily Moon original name of Harry Potter character Luna Lovegood
• Lily Chen character in Cassandra Clare's "The Mortal Instruments"
• Lily Moscovitz character in The Princess Diaries
• Lily Aldrin character on TV's "How I Met Your Mother"
• Lily Catherine Hue Magnum daughter of the title character in TV's "Magnum"
• Lily/Summer Robinson character in "The Cellar" by Natasha Preston
• Lily Sloane character in movie "Star Trek: First Contact"
• Princess Lily character in "Princess of the Midnight Ball" by Jessica Day George
• Princess Lily character in "Entwined" by Heather Dixon
• Lily the white cat from Kiki's Delivery Service
• Lily Bart main character in Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth"
• Lily Munster vampire character on TV's "The Munsters"
• Lily Goldenblatt Charlotte's daughter on TV's "Sex and the City"
• Lily Tucker Pritchett, daughter of Cam and Mitch on TV's "Modern Family"
• Lillian "Lily" Celia Bass Serena's mother on TV's "Gossip Girl"
• Lily Chandly character in "The Basic Eight" by Daniel Handler
• Lily Luster character in 2012 film "Passion Play"
• Lillian "Lily" Salvatore character on TV's "The Vampire Diaries"
• Lily employee in the AT&T commercials
• Lily main character in 1982 film "Bayou Romance"
• Lillian "Lily" Prescott character on TV's "Hannah Montana" played by Emily Osment
• Lily Roe Scott daughter of Karen Roe and Keith Scott, sister to Lucas Scott on TV's "One Tree Hill"
• Lily Bowen character in video game 'Fallout: New Vegas'
• Lily Mercy character in movie "Montana Sky"
• Panther Lily character in manga/anime 'Fairy Tail'
• Lily Calloway Hale character in Krista and Becca Ritchie's Addicted Series
• Lily Loud a character from the Nickelodeon cartoon "The Loud House"
• Lily sister of Jonas in Lois Lowry's "The Giver"
• Lily Stein character in DC Universe
• Lily Summers character on TV's "Switched at Birth" played by Rachel Shenton
• Lily Saylor character in movie "I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House" played by Ruth Wilson
• Lily a Japanese Vocaloid.
• Lily a frog villager from “Animal Crossing”

International Variations of the name Lily

• Lys French
• Liliah Greek
• Lilia Russian
• Liliya Russian
• Lili German
• Lilika Greek
• Lia Russian
• Liliane French
• Lilike Slavic
• Lilie German
• Liya Russian