Lila
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: The play of god’s spirit manifested in the universe; divine play, creative spiritual energy
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/lajlə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Lila is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- DZAlgeria≈1 in 2.6K(inferred from the name graph)
- IDIndonesia≈1 in 19K
- TMTurkmenistan≈1 in 2.7Kas Leela
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Lila itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 6 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 277 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.6K (inferred from the name graph)
66,739 named Bella, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Algeria, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Leela in US United States, SE Sweden, TM Turkmenistan.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Name used in several languages; often from Arabic Layla or as a diminutive of names like Liliane.
Sources 1
- Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Lila is read(measured from records)
Lila is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- Hindi38%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Lila in Hindi.
- English27%
The play of god’s spirit manifested in the universe; divine play, creative spiritual energy.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Spanish12%
lilac (flower)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- French5.5%
Name used in several languages; often from Arabic Layla or as a diminutive of names like Liliane.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Probable diminutif de Liliane; origine latine, « lis ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Lila, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Lila counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 66,739as Bella | 1 in 5K | 67K | Leela | 277 |
| HU Hungary | — | 22,371as Lilla | 1 in 437 | 22K | — | — |
| DZ Algeria | #216 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.6K | listed | Lila | 29 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈14,000 est. | ≈1 in 19K | listed | Lila | 106 |
| FR France | — | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.8K | 19K | — | 2 |
| EC Ecuador | — | 11,006as Bella | 1 in 1.5K | 11K | — | 4 |
| SE Sweden | — | 3,233as Bella | 1 in 3.2K | 3.2K | Leela | 5 |
| TM Turkmenistan | #537 | ≈2,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.7K | — | Leela | 1 |
| FI Finland | — | 1,190 | 1 in 4.7K | 1.3K | — | 3 |
66,739 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020, counting the spelling bella. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Nyilvántartó — Top-100 given names in population (2020–2025); INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); INEC — civil registry names; Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Lila is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
— žr. Lilius
as a nameLietuvių pavardžių žodynas (Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames)
Krsna (N)
as a nameSunama Sarit (Hindi) Ten Thousand Sanskrit Names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Lila Bell Wallaceb. 1889USAmerican publisher and art collector (1889–1984)
- Lila Leeb. 1901USprominent screen actress of the silent film era (1901-1973)
- Lila Kedrovab. 1909FRactress (1909–2000)
- Lila Kayeb. 1929GBBritish actress (1929-2012)
- Diane Sawyerb. 1945USnot in their usual nameAmerican journalist
- Lila Abu-Lughodb. 1952USPalestinian-American anthropologist
- Lila Downsb. 1968MXMexican-American singer-songwriter
- Lila Tretikovb. 1978RURussian–American engineer, manager and former executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation
- Lila Avilésb. 1982MXMexican film director
- Lila Karib. 2000CARomanian and Canadian computer scientist
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 115 sources across 57 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 43K | #997 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024) | 2024 | 19K | #80 |
| EC Ecuador | INEC — civil registry names | 2024 | 1.7K | #674 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 1.7K | — |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 1.3K | #703 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 1.2K | — |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 269 | #4,232 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 207 | #997 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 148 | — |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 25 | #14,763 |
Reference works 9
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Lietuvių kalbos institutas — Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas (Lithuanian surname dictionary)
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas (Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you pronounce Lila?
- A machine transcription gives /lajlə/ (IPA) for Hindi.
- What are other forms of the name Lila?
- In the etymology graph, Lillian, Lilian and Leyla are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Lila a male or female name?
- Lila is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Lila mean?
- In English, The play of god’s spirit manifested in the universe; divine play, creative spiritual energy.
- Where does the name Lila come from?
- Name used in several languages; often from Arabic Layla or as a diminutive of names like Liliane. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
- In which country does Lila have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 67 thousand people named Bella, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Lila?
- In Finland, the national register counted 1,190 people named Lila, about 1 in 4.7 thousand residents.
- How common is Lila compared with other names?
- In Algeria, Lila is the 216th most common given name of 27,215 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Lila?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/lilaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Lila” — the 216th most common given name in Algeria. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.