Lila

From the Arabic root for night, though Sanskrit claims an identical sound meaning play or sport. English speakers picked it up in the late nineteenth century alongside a wave of short, vowel-ended imports. In American registries, it spent decades as a modest Southern favorite before modern parents treated it as an alternative to Lily.

A Lila is assumed to carry canvas totes and own at least three house plants that survive without drama. The name reads as quiet and light on its feet, rarely demanding a full auditorium to announce itself. Because more than seventy percent of living Lilas belong to Gen Z or Gen Alpha, she is almost certainly younger than the person expecting a Victorian great-aunt. The name feels old until you meet one, at which point she is asking for the Wi-Fi password.