Ly
A gender-neutral Vietnamese name derived from the Chinese surname Li.
Name Census estimates that about 380 living Americans carry the first name Ly. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 70.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Ly today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ly births was 1984 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ly. 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.
People living today
380
~ 1 in 901,985 Americans
Peak year
1984
32 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2006 SSA rank
#13,249
Tracked since 1973
Census
Ly in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,608 people with the first name Ly, which placed it at #4,165 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
#4,165
National first-name rank
People counted
4.6K
4,608 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
95.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ly
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ly is Asian/Pacific Islander at 95.0%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Ly 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 Ly at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander95.0% · 4,379
- White1.9% · 89
- Two or more races1.3% · 61
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 47
- Black or African American0.7% · 32
Gender
Gender distribution for Ly
Ly is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 399 total registrations, 119 (29.8%) were male and 280 (70.2%) were female.
Ly as a male name
- Ranked #13,249 in 2006
- 5 male births in 2006
- Peak: 1983 (13 births)
Ly as a female name
- Ranked #13,319 in 2008
- 8 female births in 2008
- Peak: 1984 (24 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ly on both sides of the split. Of the 4,610 people counted with this name, 1,316 were male (28.5%) and 3,294 were female (71.5%).
Popularity
Ly: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ly from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 221 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ly 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 Ly during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ly
The name Ly has its origins in the Vietnamese language and culture. It is a shortened form of the Vietnamese surname Ly, which was the family name of the Ly Dynasty that ruled Vietnam from 1009 to 1225 CE. The name is derived from the Vietnamese word "ly," which means "village" or "hamlet."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ly can be found in the Annals of the Ly Dynasty, a historical text that chronicles the reign of the Ly emperors. The Annals mention several prominent figures with the name Ly, including Ly Thai Tong (974-1028 CE), who was the founder of the Ly Dynasty and the first emperor of the Ly Dynasty.
Another notable figure with the name Ly was Ly Tu Trong (1630-1682 CE), a Vietnamese philosopher and poet who was known for his works on Confucianism and his contributions to Vietnamese literature. He is considered one of the most influential thinkers of his time in Vietnam.
In more recent history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Ly. One such person was Ly Tin Wheedhee (1925-2007 CE), a Thai architect and artist who was renowned for his contributions to modern Thai architecture and his work in promoting traditional Thai arts and crafts.
Another notable figure was Ly Thi Xuan (1915-1967 CE), a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who played a significant role in the struggle for Vietnam's independence from French colonial rule. She was a member of the Indochinese Communist Party and served as the Minister of Finance in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Ly Dai Tin (1931-2022 CE) was a Vietnamese-American engineer and businessman who was the founder and former chairman of Panda Express, one of the largest Asian-American fast-food chains in the United States.
While the name Ly has its roots in Vietnamese culture, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of the world, particularly in Southeast Asia and among the Vietnamese diaspora communities around the globe.
People
Ly + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ly 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
Ly: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ly?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 380 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ly 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 901,985 US residents.
Is Ly a common name?
We classify Ly as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 399 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ly most popular?
The single biggest year for Ly was 1984, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ly is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ly in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,608 people with the name Ly, or 1.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,165 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 Ly 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 Ly?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ly on both sides of the split. Of the 4,610 people counted with this name, 1,316 were male (28.5%) and 3,294 were female (71.5%). 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 Ly?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ly is Asian/Pacific Islander at 95.0%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Ly most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ly in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.0% (4,379 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 Ly in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ly a female name?
Yes, 70.2% of people registered as Ly 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 Ly still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ly 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 Ly 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 Ly?
You can see how many people share the name Ly on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.