Pilar

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.

• Spanish:/piˈlaɾ/●(recorded in a dictionary) from Wiktionary

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Pilar, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Marisol
• Rosario
• Araceli
• Soledad
• Luz

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.

Pilar is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Spain, Peru, Philippines

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Pílar, Pilár, Pilař

• French given name4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, United States, Belgium

  Also written Pîlar, Pïlar, Pilař

• a separate name6 spellings in the group

  Also written Pïlar, Pilař, Pilar̆, Pîlar, Pílar

• Bulgarian given name10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, United States, Peru, Argentina

  Languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian

  Also written Pilâr, Pilař, Пилар

• Lao given name17 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, Chile, Spain, Peru

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written ปลาร, พิลารี, ปลารี, พลาร, ปิลาร์

• Russian given name17 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, Russia, Peru, United States

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian

  Also written Пилар, Пілар, Піляр, Pílar, Piliar

• Polish given name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, United States, Poland, Peru

  Also written Pilař, Pîlär

• Romanian given name2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, United States, Peru, Ecuador

  Also written Pïlăr

59 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Pilar is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Spanish, pillar, pier, mainstay

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Spanish, Del latín pila ‘pila, pilastra, pilar’; advocación aragonesa de la Virgen del Pilar.

  as a name·Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios

• In English, Spanish; 'supportive pillar'

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In German, weibl. Vom. spanischer Herkunft (span. päar »Pfeiler«). Der Name geht zurück auf die »Virgen del Pilar« (»die [heilige] Jungfrau von dem Pfeiler«), ein Muttergottesbild auf einem Pfeiler, das in Zaragoza (Spanien) verehrt wird (Fest am 12. Oktober). Die bildliche Darstellung bezieht sich auf eine

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Spanish: name referring to a title of the Virgin Mary, Nuestra Señora del Pilar ‘Our Lady of the Pillar’. The story is that in AD 40 the Virgin appeared, standing on a pillar, to St James the Greater at Saragossa. The vocabulary word pilar is masculine, but this has not inhibited its use as a feminine given name. Pet forms: Pili (most commonly found in the combination Maripili); Pilita, Piluca .

  as a word

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.

• Pilar Lorengarb. 1928ESSpanish operatic soprano
• Maria Canals Barrerab. 1966USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
• Pilar Castrob. 1970ESSpanish actress

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).

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.

82 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 36 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Pilar mean, and where does it come from?

Marian name honouring Nuestra Senora del Pilar ‘Our Lady of the Pillar’, referring to an alleged appearance of the Virgin standing on a pillar to St James the Greater at Saragossa. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.

How do you pronounce Pilar?

In Spanish /piˈlaɾ/ (Wiktionary).

What are other forms of the name Pilar?

In the etymology graph, Pili is a recorded short or pet form.

Is Pilar a male or female name?

Pilar is a female name. National registers that list it by sex list it as female: Spain (INE), United States (Census Bureau, 2020), Ecuador (INEC, 2024) and Brazil (IBGE, 2022), among others.

Which countries have the most people named Pilar?

In Spain, the national register counted about 123 thousand people named Pilar, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled pilar. After it come Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru; the country table on this page ranks them.

Where is Pilar most common?

Pilar is densest in Spain, where the national register counts about 1 in 406 people carrying it.

How common is the name Pilar?

In Spain, the national register counted 123,094 people named Pilar, about 1 in 406 residents.

How common is Pilar compared with other names?

In Spain, Pilar is the 31st most common given name of 135,644 given names recorded there.