Lilia

Meaning and origin

Lilia is a flower name connected with the lily. In English it can come from Latin lilia, the plural of lilium, or serve as a Latin-style form of Lily. The repeated l sounds and final -ia give it a flowing shape that is distinct from the shorter Lily.

The spelling also has a Hawaiian history. Hawaiian Lilia can represent the English names Lily or Lydia, so its history there is not exclusively floral. Its pronunciation is approximately lee-LEE-ah. In Spanish, Lilia is usually closer to LEEL-yah, with two syllables and stress at the beginning.

Lily, Liliana and Lillian belong to the surrounding flower-name family, while Liliya is a familiar transliteration in Slavic naming traditions. Lilia's ending makes it look particularly close to Liliana, but it is a full name in its own right.

Lilia in Tennyson

Lilia appears in the framing story of Alfred Tennyson's The Princess. In the prologue, a group gathers in the grounds of an English country house, among displays of science, history and inherited family treasures. Lilia mischievously decorates an old warrior's statue with bright fabric, setting a playful tone before the larger debate begins.

When the conversation turns to an earlier woman who defended her home, Lilia argues that many women could be equally capable if convention did not hold them back. She imagines founding a college for women, away from men. Her proposal helps set up the poem's central story about a princess and women's education.

This literary Lilia is memorable for her energy and impatience with restrictions. The name belongs to the people telling and discussing the story, rather than to the princess of the title.

Sporting connections

American golfer Lilia Vu brought the name to major championship leaderboards in 2023. She won both The Chevron Championship and the AIG Women's Open that year, and her season earned the LPGA's Rolex Player of the Year award. These were two major titles in the same season.

Another sporting bearer is Ukrainian gymnast Lilia Podkopayeva, the Olympic all-around champion at Atlanta in 1996. Her precise technique and expressive performances gave this spelling an international sporting association well before Vu's golfing successes.

American popularity

Lilia has a long presence in American name records but has generally remained outside the most common choices. In 2020 it was given to 205 girls and ranked number 1,154. By 2025 the annual total had risen to 315, putting it at number 859.

That 2025 count is the largest for the exact spelling in the local SSA series. Lilia therefore combines an established literary and international history with a relatively modest, recently growing American presence. Its statistics remain separate from Lily, Liliya and Liliana, even when their sounds and flower associations overlap.

How popular is Lilia?

In 2025, Lilia ranked #859 among girls in the United States, with 315 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1884; its largest annual count was 315 in 2025. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.