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Lilja

#9,216 in 2025Girls' name

Lily

Lilja has been given to 272 babies in the U.S. since 1998. In 2025 it ranked #9,216 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2024, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Lilja, 2025

1 in 301,000

Lilja over time, 1880–2025

Girls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Lilja: meaning, origin, and history

Lily

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Lilja means

Lilja means “lily”, associated with lilja.

Origin, language, and formation

Lilja is used in Faroese, Finnish and Icelandic.

The given-name sense places Lilja among flower names.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Lilja is pronounced /ˈliljɑ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 272 girls were recorded with the name Lilja between 1998 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 19 in 2024; its best national rank was #6,297 in 2024.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #8,223 in 2020 to #9,216 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #8,259 in 2015 to #9,216 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Lilja?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 301,000
11 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 146,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#9,216
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
208,901 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Lilja sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 208,901 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lilja. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Liljas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Lilja was born before 2015 — so the typical Lilja is around 10 today.

Median birth year
2015
About 10 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
41.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
95.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
272
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 41.9% of all recorded uses (114).

Is Lilja rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2,919
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−993
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−957
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.79×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
57.9%
Peak was 2024 (19)
Years since peak
1
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#6,297
2024

Spellings of Lilja

Lilja is not the most common spelling — Linda is, with 38.3% against Lilja's <0.01%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Lilja is used

Across 1910–2025, Lilja was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 2,668,796 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Lilja has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Lilja around the world

Where Lilja ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2008–2025
    #4,201
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2010–2010
    #910
    in 2010
  • France
    2010–2021
    #7,028
    in 2021
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #146
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2010–2024
    #3,457
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    2007–2008
    #796
    in 2008

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Lilja by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#9,216
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 993
Best rank ever
#6,297
2024
Peak year
2024
19 that year
First recorded
1998
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
272
Count in 2025
11

Names similar to Lilja

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

LilouLilitLilacLilyaLiliahLillahLilythLilleyLileeLiloLilanLiliethLileighLilasLiliyaLilymaeLilianiLilinoeLillienLilieLiliasLilliahLileLilana

Sibling names for Lilja

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Lilja

Top names of 2024, Lilja's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2024Girls' names starting with LIcelandic Girl Names