Ilya
Ilya is given to both girls and boys: 26 girls and 38 boys were given it in 2025 (#5,026 among girls’ names and #3,152 among boys’, #4,762 among all names counting both); 1,226 Americans have been recorded with it since 1961 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,210 Americans named Ilya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 6 and 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ilya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ilya mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ilya is “a male given name from Russian.”
Also “a transliteration of the Russian male given name Илья́ (Ilʹjá).”
From Russian Илья́ (Ilʹjá). Doublet of Elijah.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ilya?
#3,152 among boys’ names, 2025
Ilya rose from #3,181 in 2015 to #3,152 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 18.8 to 22.2 per million.
65 babies in 2018, the peak
Ilya peaked in 2018, when 65 babies were given it (48 boys, #2,622 among boys’ names). The 64 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 98% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 26 | #5,026 | 38 | #3,152 |
| 2024 | 16 | #7,054 | 32 | #3,552 |
| 2023 | 21 | #5,824 | 34 | #3,444 |
| 2022 | 14 | #7,775 | 27 | #4,028 |
| 2021 | 25 | #5,142 | 38 | #3,145 |
| 2020 | 19 | #6,163 | 38 | #3,043 |
| 2019 | 13 | #8,296 | 38 | #3,118 |
| 2018 | 17 | #6,910 | 48 | #2,622 |
| 2017 | 6 | #14,809 | 32 | #3,476 |
| 2016 | 15 | #7,746 | 27 | #3,921 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7 | #13,536 | 36 | #3,181 |
| 2014 | 11 | #9,772 | 31 | #3,490 |
| 2013 | 8 | #12,429 | 34 | #3,223 |
| 2012 | 9 | #11,627 | 40 | #2,921 |
| 2011 | under 5 | 42 | #2,821 | |
| 2010 | 8 | #12,736 | 32 | #3,401 |
| 2009 | 9 | #11,830 | 28 | #3,761 |
| 2008 | 5 | #18,571 | 22 | #4,448 |
| 2007 | under 5 | 30 | #3,540 | |
| 2006 | under 5 | 26 | #3,826 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 31 | #3,271 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 19 | #4,477 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 32 | #3,014 | |
| 2002 | 9 | #10,537 | 14 | #5,220 |
| 2001 | under 5 | 21 | #3,888 | |
| 2000 | under 5 | 24 | #3,456 | |
| 1999 | 6 | #13,277 | 22 | #3,511 |
| 1998 | under 5 | 14 | #4,737 | |
| 1997 | under 5 | 14 | #4,535 | |
| 1996 | under 5 | 13 | #4,703 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 8 | #6,610 | |
| 1994 | under 5 | 11 | #5,219 | |
| 1993 | under 5 | 14 | #4,321 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 6 | #7,824 | |
| 1991 | under 5 | 7 | #6,810 | |
| 1988 | under 5 | 6 | #6,734 | |
| 1981 | under 5 | 5 | #6,675 | |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,469 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | under 5 | 6 | #5,201 | |
| 1974 | under 5 | 7 | #4,346 | |
| 1971 | under 5 | 7 | #4,139 | |
| 1969 | under 5 | 11 | #2,763 | |
| 1966 | under 5 | 5 | #4,196 | |
| 1961 | 5 | #6,948 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Ilya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,226 Americans recorded as Ilya, 21% are girls and 79% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Ilya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ilya, and how old are they?
1,210 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,226 Americans ever recorded as Ilya. The median Ilya alive today is 12 years old; half are between 6 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 5,505 people named Ilya (229 women and girls, 5,276 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 899 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.1 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 38 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 67 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 450 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 647 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ilya born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 12 | #2,307 | 0.8× |
| Texas | 5 | #2,725 | 0.1× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ilya with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 2,338 babies since 1880, Ilya is the most given (52% of them). In 2025 it was given to 64 of their 124 babies (52%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ilya
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ilya and names like it
- Compare Ilya and IllyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sIlya peaked in 2018.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ilya since 1910.
- Russian namesWiktionary’s origin for Ilya: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Ilya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ilya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with IMost given first.