Lila
Top 1000
About Lila
Lila is one of the girl names with a double l sound — Lila, Lola, Layla, Leila, Lily et al — that have caught on in a major way., Delicate yet dynamic, Lila has a slightly international flair.
The one caveat, and you may consider it a big: As a group, the La-La names have gotten so stylish so quickly that they're verging on full-blown trendiness and tend to blend into one another. So while there may not be another little girl named Lila in town, between those named Lillian, Lily, Layla, and so on, you may feel there's a double L overload.
Lila was derived from the Arabic word laylah, meaning "night." It has separate roots in Sanskrit with the meaning "play." In Hinduism, Lila is a conceptualism of the universe as a playground of the gods. Lilah and Lyla are variant spellings.
Lila has been a recent hot TV character name, seen on such shows asDamages and Dexter, as well as Friday Night Lights, where the name is spelled Lyla—another trendy version.
Trivia tidbit: Diane Sawyer was born Lila Diane.
Pronounced LY-la or LEE-la.
As of October 2026, Lila ranked #187 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #155 in 2010, Nameberry popularity #83.
Editor's take: The name Lila is a girl's name of Arabic, Hindi, Persian origin meaning "night; play".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #184 | 1,776 | 994.2 |
| 2015 | #199 | 1,658 | 928.8 |
| 2016 | #210 | 1,561 | 880.9 |
| 2017 | #210 | 1,473 | 853.2 |
| 2018 | #225 | 1,405 | 825.9 |
| 2019 | #228 | 1,372 | 817.5 |
| 2020 | #228 | 1,298 | 802.9 |
| 2021 | #223 | 1,339 | 816 |
| 2022 | #221 | 1,354 | 825.5 |
| 2023 | #213 | 1,398 | 871.3 |
| 2024 | #207 | 1,475 | 910.4 |
| 2025 | #187 | 1,670 | 1,039 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Lila.
- Mila
- Evie
- Stella
- Maya
- Sienna
- Scarlett
- Abagail
- Eva
- Zara
- Emilia
- Gemma
- Amelie
- Audrey
- Ella
- Zoe
- Chloe
- Elle
- Layla
- Sadie
- Ellie
Lila on lists
Famous Lilas
- (Ana) Lila Downs (Sánchez)
Mexican,American singer,songwriter
- Lila Karp
American feminist novelist
- Elizaveta Nikolayevna "Lila" Kedrova
Russian,French actress
- Lila Lee (born Augusta Appel)
American actress
- Lila Elaine McCann
American country music singer
- (Lila) Diane Sawyer
American news reporter
- Lila Prap
pen name of Lilijana Praprotnik ZupanÄiÄ, Slovene children's author and illustrator
- Lila Amen
American reality TV personality ("All American Muslim")
- Lila Parks (b. 2001)
daughter of musicians Louise Post of Veruca Salt and Tony Parks
- Lila Grace Moss
Hack (b. 2002), daughter of model Kate Moss
- Lila Geary (b. 2006)
daughter of actors Laura Fraser and Karl Geary
- Lila Tracey Cassidy (b. 2008)
daughter of actor Shaun Cassidy
- Lila Addison Jones (b. 2009)
quintuplet daughter of Casey and Ethan Jones of TV's "Quints By Surprise"
- Lila Hagman (b. 2009)
daughter of ice hockey player Niklas Hagman and model Piritta Hannula
- Lila Bennington (b. 2011)
daughter of singer Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and model Talinda Bennington; twin of sister Lily
- Lila Lovejoy (b. 2013)
daughter of ice hockey player Ben Lovejoy
- Lila
Elodie Scott, daughter of singers Mike Scott of The Waterboys and Camille O'Sullivan
- Lila Skye Kalis
daughter of American skateboarder Josh Kalis
Lila in pop culture
- Delilah 'Lila' Bard
character from V.E. Schwab's "A Darker Shade of Magic"
- Lila
character on TV's 'Deadwood'
- Lila West
character on TV's 'Dexter'
- Lila Dahl (Ames)
character in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead trilogy
- Lila Zacharov
character in The Curse Workers trilogy by Holly Black
- Lila Morgan
character on TV's "Angel"
- Lila Wate
character in the Beautiful Creatures series
- Lila Markus
Grace's daughter on TV's "Will and Grace"
- Lila "Fantasia" Walker
character in movie "One False Move"
- Lila Robinson
character on TV's "Pushing Daisies"
- Lila Pilgrim
character on TV's "Endeavour"
- Lila Sawyer
character in animated series "Hey Arnold"
- Lila Maria Sucre
daughter of Sucre on TV's "Prison Break"
- Lila Mayfield
main character in comic strip "The Meaning of Lila" by John Forgetta
- Lila Stanguard
character from How to Get Away with Murder
- Rafaella "Lila" Cerullo
character in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels
- Lila Rossi
character in the TV show 'Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir'
- Lila Fowler
character in Sweet Valley High book series by Francine Pascalki
- Lila Norcross
main character in the novel "Sleeping Beauties" by Stephen and Owen King
- Lila Dixon
character in the 1942 film "Holiday Inn"
- Lila
unicorn character in 2003 animated movie, "Barbie of Swan Lake"
- Lila
minor character in the Peanuts
- Lila Barton
character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe