Lilah
Meaning
variant of Leila, "night"
The story
Lilah is a name two traditions can claim without quarreling. Our records file it under the Arabic road, a variant of Leila, the night; it is also the tail of Delilah worn alone. Either way the sound is the same soft double-l that this century cannot get enough of. The record shows a century of near-silence, between about 60 and 285 every decade from the 1890s through the 1990s, then the wave: about 3,400 in the 2000s, 10,800 in the 2010s, and 8,800 so far this decade. It charts separately from Lila, Layla, Leila and Delilah, and together that sound-family is one of the era's largest. One figure is absolute: not a single boy in the whole record, 24,600 girls to zero. Night as a meaning, music as a sound, and a spelling with just enough h to feel antique: the package explains itself.
The formal names behind Lilah
Lilah is an established short form of this name.
Delilah · Hebrew origin · delicate, weak, languishing
Lilah around the world
One shared root links 7 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: from Arabic layl "night", spread by the seventh-century romance of Layla and Majnun
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Lilah peaked in the 2020s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
44 people · the #72,674 first name in Brazil · median age 20
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Lilah
Most people given the name Lilah in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Lilah deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Lilah truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Lilah fits with your family’s names and surname.
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