Lilith
A feminine name from Jewish folklore meaning "night monster" or "night creature".
Name Census estimates that about 12,231 living Americans carry the first name Lilith. It sits at #256 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lilith today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lilith births was 2023 (1,298 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lilith. 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 Lilith with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Lilith is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 9 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 28,023 Americans
Peak year
2023
1,298 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#256
Tracked since 1913
Census
Lilith in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,910 people with the first name Lilith, which placed it at #3,505 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
#3,505
National first-name rank
People counted
5.9K
5,910 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lilith
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilith is White at 69.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.2%) and Two or More Races (8.2%). 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 Lilith 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 Lilith at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.7% · 4,122
- Hispanic or Latino18.2% · 1,077
- Two or more races8.2% · 484
- Black or African American1.6% · 92
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 71
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 64
Popularity
Lilith: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lilith from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 5,889 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lilith 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 Lilith during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Liliths live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Lilith, while Hawaii, Rhode Island, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 234 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lilith
The name Lilith has its origins in ancient Babylonian mythology, dating back to around 3000 BCE. It is derived from the Sumerian word "lilitu," which means "wind spirit" or "female demon." The name first appeared in the ancient Mesopotamian epic Gilgamesh, one of the earliest known works of literature, where Lilith is depicted as a powerful and seductive figure associated with the desert and the night.
In later Jewish folklore, Lilith emerged as a prominent figure, often portrayed as Adam's first wife before Eve. According to these traditions, Lilith was created from the same dust as Adam but refused to submit to him, leading to her banishment from the Garden of Eden. She became associated with the seduction of men, the endangerment of newborn infants, and the embodiment of female power and independence.
The name Lilith is also mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Jewish religious texts dating back to the 3rd century BCE. In these texts, Lilith is portrayed as a demonic figure who leads astray the sons of men and threatens the sanctity of the home.
One of the earliest recorded individuals named Lilith was a 4th-century BCE Greek hetaera (courtesan) from the city of Ephesus, renowned for her beauty and intelligence. Lilith is also the name of a character in the 15th-century German folk tale Faust, where she is depicted as a succubus who tempts the protagonist with sensual pleasures.
In the 19th century, the name Lilith gained popularity in literature and art, often representing the concept of the "femme fatale" or the dangerous, seductive woman. One notable example is the poem "Lilith" by the English Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821), which portrays her as a powerful and alluring figure.
Another famous Lilith was Lilith Baird (1857-1904), an American actress and singer who achieved fame on the vaudeville stage in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, Lilith Lorraine (1892-1928) was a Canadian-born actress and dancer who became a popular figure in early Hollywood films.
People
Lilith + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lilith 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
Lilith: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lilith?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,231 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lilith 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 28,023 US residents.
Is Lilith a common name?
We classify Lilith as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,404 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lilith most popular?
The single biggest year for Lilith was 2023, when 1,298 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lilith is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lilith in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,910 people with the name Lilith, or 1.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,505 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 Lilith 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 Lilith?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lilith appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,914 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Lilith?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lilith is White at 69.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.2%) and Two or More Races (8.2%). 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 Lilith most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lilith in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.7% (4,122 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 Lilith in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lilith a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lilith 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 Lilith still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lilith 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 Lilith 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 Americans are named Lilith?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.