Lillian (first name)

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Lillian or Lilian is a female given name that is particularly common in the English-speaking world.

Origin, meaning and variants

Lillian has been widespread in England since the 16th century, the name variant Lilian was probably derived from this.

The name Lilli and its other forms such as Lili or Lily are Kose or Lall forms, which are mostly traced back to the first name Elisabeth . A further development of this nickname (such as the contraction of the name Anna / Ann to Lil [l] i-An [na / ne]) resulted in the new name variant Lilian or Lillian, or Lillianna. The lall form lil ' can also be formed from little in English .

The etymological derivation of “ lily ” (Latin: Lilium : purity is associated with the flower) is also very common , especially in the forms with only one L, such as Lilian, Liliana or Liliane. Liliane and Liliana are very familiar in Romance languages, especially in French and Italian (for namesake see there). In South Slavic languages, the related name Ljiljana is common (see bearer of the name there).

Spread and popularity

In the USA, the variant Lillian was very common around 1900 and was one of the most popular first names that were newly assigned. This popularity fell sharply until 1940, when the name fell from the list of the 100 most frequently given first names and was no longer among the 300 most popular first names until 1970. It had become more popular again by 1990 and was again among the 100 most popular names by the early 2000s. The peak of the new wave of popularity was reached around 2010.

In comparison, the variant Lilian was given far less frequently in the USA , which in the decades around 1900 was only rarely one of the 400 most popular first names (but this for both boys and girls), until 1920 it was almost completely out of use and only changed again in 2000 became one of the 400 most popular girls' names, parallel to Lillian .

The variant Lilliana was only given more frequently in the USA around 1970 and just missed the list of the 100 most common names at the height of the popularity wave around 2010. At the same time, Liliana was also awarded more frequently from 2000 and in 2013 was around 250th place.

Well-known namesake

Variant of Lillian

Variant of Lilian

Other variants

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ Wilfried Seibicke, Given Names, 3rd edition 2002, p. 204
  3. ↑ The large first name dictionary, Dudenverlag, 3rd edition 2007, p. 267
  4. ↑ formation of Lilianna
  5. ↑ a b c Behind the name: Statistics on the names Lillian and Lilian in the USA . (The name registers of the USA allow more complete and informative statistics than other countries in the English-speaking world, for which in principle similar tendencies can be determined on the same statistics page.)