Tilly
Tilly was given to 302 girls in 2025, #885 among girls’ names; 2,699 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,620 Americans named Tilly and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 11.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tilly by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tilly mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tilly is “a diminutive of the female given name Matilda.”
(given name, nickname): Shortened from Matilda, + -y.
(surname): The surname may also have origins as a matronymic from Matilda.
/ˈtɪli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tilly?
#885 among girls’ names, 2025
Tilly rose from #2,257 in 2015 to #885 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.05 to 0.19 per 1,000.
302 babies in 2025, the peak
Tilly peaked in 2025, when 302 girls were given it, #885 among girls’ names. In 2024 it went to 274 girls.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 302 | #885 | 0.19 |
| 2024 | 274 | #954 | 0.17 |
| 2023 | 242 | #1,045 | 0.15 |
| 2022 | 250 | #1,028 | 0.15 |
| 2021 | 218 | #1,133 | 0.13 |
| 2020 | 166 | #1,332 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 170 | #1,344 | 0.10 |
| 2018 | 129 | #1,648 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 110 | #1,862 | 0.06 |
| 2016 | 83 | #2,305 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 84 | #2,257 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 69 | #2,578 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 64 | #2,723 | 0.04 |
| 2012 | 68 | #2,652 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 51 | #3,262 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 44 | #3,619 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 41 | #3,866 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 28 | #5,264 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 31 | #4,796 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 17 | #7,454 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 14 | #8,292 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 13 | #8,677 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 14 | #7,960 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 9 | #11,026 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 12 | #8,703 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 5 | #17,420 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 14 | #7,200 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 7 | #12,325 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,748 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 8 | #10,484 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 9 | #9,496 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 8 | #10,478 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 5 | #15,426 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 5 | #15,279 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 6 | #12,840 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 5 | #13,118 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 6 | #10,122 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 5 | #10,489 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 6 | #8,677 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #8,194 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,532 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 5 | #8,106 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 6 | #6,531 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,808 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 5 | #7,126 | under 0.01 |
| 1940 | 6 | #4,297 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 6 | #4,176 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 5 | #5,021 | under 0.01 |
| 1928 | 5 | #5,361 | under 0.01 |
| 1927 | 5 | #5,535 | under 0.01 |
| 1925 | 5 | #5,694 | under 0.01 |
| 1920 | 5 | #5,680 | under 0.01 |
| 1916 | 9 | #3,228 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 13 | #2,003 | 0.02 |
| 1912 | 5 | #3,388 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tilly a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tilly has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 55 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Tilly: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tilly, and how old are they?
2,620 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,699 Americans ever recorded as Tilly. The median Tilly alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 11.
The 2020 Census counted 1,423 people named Tilly (1,391 women and girls, 32 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,223 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% above 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 4 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 15 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 31 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 45 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 374 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,150 |
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 Tilly born?
The states with the most babies named Tilly are Texas, Tennessee and Georgia, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 25 | #1,116 | 0.6× |
| Tennessee | 21 | #388 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 18 | #608 | 0.4× |
| Kentucky | 14 | #328 | 1.4× |
| North Carolina | 13 | #777 | 0.7× |
| Oregon | 13 | #295 | 1.3× |
| Missouri | 12 | #512 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 11 | #872 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 11 | #1,318 | 0.5× |
| New York | 10 | #1,407 | 0.6× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ 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 Tilly 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 19,406 babies since 1880, Tilly is the second most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 302 of their 521 babies (58%), the most given that year.
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 Tilly
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 Tilly and names like it
- Compare Tilly and TillieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sTilly peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tilly since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Tilly.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Tilly alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with TMost given first.