Lilie
A feminine name of French origin meaning "lily" or "flower".
Name Census estimates that about 624 living Americans carry the first name Lilie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lilie today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lilie births was 2008 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lilie. 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 Lilie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
624
~ 1 in 549,286 Americans
Peak year
2008
40 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,199
Tracked since 1881
Census
Lilie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 863 people with the first name Lilie, which placed it at #13,850 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
#13,850
National first-name rank
People counted
863
863 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lilie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilie is White at 53.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.7%) and Black (14.7%). 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 Lilie 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 Lilie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.5% · 462
- Hispanic or Latino19.7% · 170
- Black or African American14.7% · 127
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 55
- Two or more races4.3% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 12
Popularity
Lilie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lilie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 277 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
Lilie 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 Lilie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lilies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Georgia, Alabama, California recorded the most babies named Lilie, while Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lilie
The name Lilie has its origins in the French language and culture, derived from the French word "lys" meaning "lily flower". This name gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in France and other parts of Europe influenced by French culture.
The lily flower has long been associated with purity, innocence, and nobility in various cultures and religious traditions. In Christian symbolism, the lily is often linked to the Virgin Mary, representing her immaculate purity. The name Lilie may have been influenced by this symbolic meaning, reflecting a desire to bestow these virtues upon the child bearing the name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lilie can be found in the 12th century, when it was used by a French noblewoman named Lilie de Courtenay. She was the daughter of Renaud de Courtenay, a prominent French nobleman and crusader, and played a significant role in the political and cultural affairs of her time.
In the 14th century, Lilie de Valois, a French princess and the second wife of Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, bore this name. Her marriage helped strengthen the alliance between the French and Neapolitan royal houses.
During the Renaissance period, Lilie Thouars, a French artist and muse, was known for her portraits and her association with the renowned painter, Jacques-Louis David. Her birth in 1749 and her artistic contributions left a lasting impact on the cultural landscape of her time.
In the realm of literature, Lilie Wanka, a German writer and poet born in 1858, gained recognition for her works that explored themes of nature, love, and spirituality. Her poetry collections, such as "Blüten des Lebens" (Blossoms of Life), published in the late 19th century, resonated with readers across Germany and beyond.
Another notable figure bearing the name Lilie was Lilie Dejerine, a French neurologist and psychiatrist born in 1859. She made significant contributions to the study of neurological disorders and worked closely with her husband, Jules Dejerine, a pioneering neurologist. Lilie Dejerine's research and publications advanced the understanding of conditions like aphasia and other neurological impairments.
These historical figures, spanning various centuries and fields, demonstrate the enduring presence of the name Lilie throughout different eras and cultures, reflecting its connection to the symbolic lily flower and its associations with purity, innocence, and nobility.
People
Lilie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lilie 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
Lilie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lilie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 624 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lilie 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 549,286 US residents.
Is Lilie a common name?
We classify Lilie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,461 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lilie most popular?
The single biggest year for Lilie was 2008, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lilie 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 Lilie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 863 people with the name Lilie, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,850 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 Lilie 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 Lilie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lilie appears almost entirely female. Of the 860 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Lilie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilie is White at 53.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.7%) and Black (14.7%). 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 Lilie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lilie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.5% (462 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 Lilie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lilie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lilie 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 Lilie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lilie 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 Lilie 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 named Lilie?
Find out how many people share the name Lilie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.