Baby name battle: Lilith vs. Lillian

The name Lilith (which we’ve talked about recently, in the post about the Lilith Fair) and the name Lillian may sound alike, but they have very different origins.

Lillian, though it sounds like the flower name Lily, likely started as a diminutive of Elizabeth.

Lilith, on the other hand, is thought to be derived from the Akkadian word lilitu — the name of a type of demon (!) in ancient Mesopotamia.

If you were having a daughter, and you had to name her either Lilith or Lillian, which would it be? Why?

10 thoughts on “Baby name battle: Lilith vs. Lillian

  1. Even though I think Lilith has a very lilting sound, I would never name a child that. Someday she would Google her name and learn she was named after a demon, who attacks children.

    Lilian isn’t a favorite, but for me that’s the obvious choice.

  2. Lillian is a family name, and I don’t like Lilith. The choice was fairly obvious.

  3. If we’d had a girl, she would’ve been Lilith. Demons aside, we liked the history of the name – Adam’s first wife who didn’t want to be bossed around. She was the first feminist. :)

  4. The Goddess of everything dark and evil, goddess of infertility. A Demon in her own right. What a morbid (though beautiful) name to give a little girl. Why not just go with the safer choice of Lilian. And the biblical story behind it isn’t exactly one of much pride of dignity.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.