Ly
Ly is a name with a single cultural origin: Vietnamese.
- Vietnamese
Meaning & Origin of Ly
What this name means, where it came from, and how it has traveled across cultures.
Ly is a name with a single cultural origin: Vietnamese.
Origin data from Behind the Name .
Cultural Origins (via Behind the Name)
- Vietnamese
The Story of Ly
As a girl name
Ly first appeared in U.S. Social Security Administration records as a girl name in 1973, with 5 babies given the name that year. The name hit its high-water mark in 1984: 24 births, good for #3,424 nationwide. About 53% of every Ly on record arrived during the 1980s, its defining decade. Ly last appeared in the published SSA data in 2008, with 8 recorded births — it has not charted nationally since. All told, over 280 Americans have carried the name since 1880, from the 1970s to the 2020s.
As a boy name
Ly first appeared in U.S. Social Security Administration records as a boy name in 1978, with 7 babies given the name that year. The name hit its high-water mark in 1983: 13 births, good for #3,231 nationwide. About 62% of every Ly on record arrived during the 1980s, its defining decade. Ly last appeared in the published SSA data in 2006, with 5 recorded births — it has not charted nationally since. All told, over 119 Americans have carried the name since 1880, from the 1970s to the 2020s.
Popularity Over Time
Popularity by State
Names that sound like Ly
Phonetically similar names — useful when Ly is the vibe but a different syllable count or letter feel might suit better. Linked entries have a profile on Peek a Name.
Source: Datamuse . Phonetic similarity ranking, not curated.
Frequently Asked Questions about Ly
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Is Ly a unisex name?
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About the name Ly
Ly is a unisex baby name tracked by the U.S. Social Security Administration. It first appeared in SSA records in 1973 and has accumulated 280 births in the dataset. Ly's peak popularity came in 1984 when it ranked #3,424. Use the chart and map above to compare Ly's trajectory across years and U.S. states, or browse the related names section to discover similar choices.
Continue exploring
- Top names of 1984 →
- Names of the 1980s →
- Names starting with "L" →
- Browse all girl names →
- Top names of 2026 →
- Browse unisex names →
Data sources
- Birth statistics (counts, ranks, years 1880–2026) — U.S. Social Security Administration . Predictions for years not yet released by SSA are computed by Peek a Name from historical trends; we update with official data as soon as it ships.
- Etymology, cultural origins, and related forms — Behind the Name (used under their public API terms).
- Meaning prose and editorial summary — Wikipedia article extracts, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 .
- Predicted nationality distribution — Nationalize.io .
- Phonetically similar names — Datamuse .
Peek a Name aggregates and presents the above data for informational purposes. Statistical predictions and external attributions are clearly labelled where shown; we make no guarantee of accuracy beyond what each source provides.