Lilly: Popular Pet Name — Meaning & Trends

Meaning & Story

Lilly is a variant spelling of Lily, derived from the Latin lilium and ultimately from the Greek leirion. The lily flower has been a symbol of purity, beauty, and renewal across ancient Greek, Roman, and Christian traditions. As a name, Lilly carries all that floral freshness — delicate on the surface, but with roots that go deep.

Lilly ranks #115 among the most popular pet names in America, part of the enduring wave of flower names that owners gravitate toward for their sweetness and visual imagery. There is something inherently cheerful about this name — it conjures white blooms and sunny days, which is perhaps why it suits pets who bring that same brightness into a home. The double-L spelling gives it a slightly softer, more whimsical feel than the single-L Lily, and both versions remain perennial favorites.

About the Pet Name Lilly

By Jack Lin·May 4, 2026·2 min read

Lilly ranks #115 with 945 entries and is the alternative spelling of Lily that pet owners disproportionately favor. The double-L gives the name a softer, more diminutive feel than the single-L flower spelling, and that small orthographic choice ends up doing real work in how the name reads on a small companion dog.

The spelling tells the story

Lily is the flower; Lilly is the nickname. That distinction is fuzzy in formal name registries but consistent in our data. Pet owners who spell the name with a single L are usually anchoring on the floral image. Owners who spell it Lilly are usually anchoring on the affectionate diminutive feel — the same register as Millie, Tilly, and Bobby. The spelling is a soft tell about the owner's intent.

The name does well on small and mid-sized companion breeds. Cavaliers, Maltese, smaller doodles, and the gentler-tempered terriers all carry Lilly comfortably. The name is also growing on cats, particularly white and cream-colored cats where the floral association still partially carries even with the diminutive spelling.

Sound and recall

Two syllables with stress on the front (LIL-ee), the double-L glide that female pet names favor (Bella, Millie, Molly), and a vowel-trailing tail. Recall is moderate. The L consonants are soft and the name carries best in close-quarters affectionate use. For high-stakes recall, the same double-L family does not perform as well as hard-opener alternatives.

Lilly vs. Lily on the human side

Lily ranked in the SSA top 50 throughout the 2010s; Lilly with two L's has stayed lower but consistent. The double-L pet spelling reflects an owner preference for the nickname feel rather than the formal flower name, and that preference is unusual in a way worth noting. For most flower-name pets, owners use the single-L formal spelling. Lilly is the exception, and the broader floral register is browsable at pet-names. The human name page shows the parallel, smaller human curve.

One counter-reading: the spelling sometimes confuses vet records and microchip registries. Owners who pick Lilly should expect to spell it out on every form for the dog's lifetime. If that bothers you, single-L Lily is the cleaner administrative choice.