Lylah
A feminine name derived from Arabic meaning "night" or "night beauty".
Name Census estimates that about 7,934 living Americans carry the first name Lylah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lylah today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lylah births was 2024 (555 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lylah. 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 Lylah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Lylah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
7.9K
~ 1 in 43,201 Americans
Peak year
2024
555 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#544
Tracked since 1916
Census
Lylah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,796 people with the first name Lylah, which placed it at #4,045 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
#4,045
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,796 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lylah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lylah is White at 61.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.1%) and Two or More Races (7.5%). 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 Lylah 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 Lylah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.4% · 2,945
- Hispanic or Latino23.1% · 1,108
- Two or more races7.5% · 362
- Black or African American5.2% · 249
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 78
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 54
Popularity
Lylah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lylah from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 4,424 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lylah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lylah 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 Lylah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lylahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Lylah, while Alaska, Hawaii, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 168 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lylah
The name Lylah is a variant spelling of the Arabic name Layla, which means "night" or "born at night." It is derived from the Arabic word "lail," meaning "night." The name has its roots in ancient Arabic culture and can be traced back to pre-Islamic Arabia.
One of the earliest known references to the name Layla comes from the 7th-century Arabic love story "Layla and Majnun," which is considered one of the greatest romantic tragedies in Arabic literature. In this story, Layla is the name of the beautiful young woman who is the object of Majnun's unrequited love.
Throughout history, there have been several notable women named Lylah or Layla. One of the earliest recorded examples is Laylah al-Akhyaliyah, a 7th-century Arab poet and singer who was renowned for her skill in composing poems and songs.
In the 12th century, Laylah al-Amiriyah was a prominent Arabic scholar and writer who lived in Egypt. She is known for her contributions to the fields of literature and Islamic studies.
During the Ottoman Empire, Laylah Khanim was a 16th-century Ottoman princess and the daughter of Sultan Selim II. She is remembered for her patronage of the arts and her support for the construction of mosques and other buildings in Istanbul.
In more recent times, Layla Elvi (1926-2008) was a famous Turkish singer and actress who was known for her interpretations of traditional Turkish folk songs. She was widely regarded as one of the most influential artists in Turkish music history.
Finally, Layla Zoe (born 1975) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician who has released several albums and has gained popularity for her blend of folk, pop, and rock music styles.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Lylah or its variant spellings, highlighting the rich cultural heritage and significance of this name across various regions and time periods.
People
Lylah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lylah 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
Lylah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lylah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,934 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lylah 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 43,201 US residents.
Is Lylah a common name?
We classify Lylah as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,037 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lylah most popular?
The single biggest year for Lylah was 2024, when 555 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lylah is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lylah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,796 people with the name Lylah, or 1.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,045 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 Lylah 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 Lylah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lylah appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,796 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Lylah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lylah is White at 61.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.1%) and Two or More Races (7.5%). 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 Lylah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lylah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.4% (2,945 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 Lylah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lylah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lylah 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 Lylah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lylah 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 Lylah 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 share the name Lylah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.