Lis
Lis was given to 11 girls in 2025, #9,218 among girls’ names; 360 Americans have been recorded with it since 1953 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lis by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Lis mean?
Wiktionary, Danish section
Lis is “a female given name, short form of Lisa and Lise ( =Elizabeth)”
Meaning: Wiktionary, Danish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Lis?
#9,218 among girls’ names, 2025
Lis entered the girls’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #9,218 in 2025.
13 babies in 1961, the peak
Lis peaked in 1961, when 13 girls were given it, #3,703 among girls’ names. The 11 births of 2025 are 85% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 | #9,218 | 6.8 |
| 2024 | 5 | #16,684 | 3.1 |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,819 | 5.6 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,810 | 4.9 |
| 2021 | 7 | #12,952 | 4.3 |
| 2020 | 13 | #8,224 | 8.0 |
| 2019 | 9 | #10,998 | 5.4 |
| 2018 | 10 | #10,248 | 5.9 |
| 2017 | 12 | #9,106 | 7.0 |
| 2016 | 7 | #13,750 | 4.0 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 5 | #18,439 | 2.8 |
| 2011 | 5 | #18,419 | 2.8 |
| 2009 | 5 | #19,008 | 2.7 |
| 2007 | 13 | #9,324 | 6.8 |
| 2006 | 10 | #11,094 | 5.3 |
| 2005 | 6 | #15,626 | 3.2 |
| 2004 | 5 | #17,695 | 2.7 |
| 2002 | 5 | #17,027 | 2.8 |
| 1992 | 5 | #14,554 | 2.7 |
| 1987 | 10 | #7,102 | 5.8 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,693 | 4.2 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,588 | 4.2 |
| 1982 | 7 | #8,773 | 4.1 |
| 1981 | 6 | #9,811 | 3.6 |
| 1980 | 8 | #7,814 | 4.8 |
| 1979 | 6 | #9,639 | 3.7 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,756 | 4.8 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,611 | 4.8 |
| 1974 | 6 | #8,265 | 4.1 |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,975 | 4.1 |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,018 | 3.3 |
| 1971 | 9 | #5,799 | 5.4 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,736 | 4.0 |
| 1969 | 9 | #5,279 | 5.3 |
| 1968 | 10 | #4,649 | 6.1 |
| 1967 | 11 | #4,184 | 6.7 |
| 1966 | 8 | #5,090 | 4.7 |
| 1965 | 9 | #4,684 | 5.1 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,432 | 3.2 |
| 1963 | 8 | #5,109 | 4.2 |
| 1962 | 9 | #4,726 | 4.6 |
| 1961 | 13 | #3,703 | 6.4 |
| 1959 | 10 | #4,182 | 4.9 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,189 | 3.5 |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,784 | 2.9 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,404 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Lis a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Lis has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Lis: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lis, and how old are they?
An estimated 339 Americans named Lis and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 43 years old and half are between 10 and 58. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,268 people named Lis (1,210 women and girls, 58 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 295 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.3 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Lis rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 721 babies since 1880, Lis is the second most given (50% of them).
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.
More about Lis and names like it
- Compare Lis and LilasBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sLis peaked in 1961.
- Danish namesWiktionary’s origin for Lis: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1961The year the most babies were named Lis.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Lis alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with LMost given first.