Meaning and background
The story behind Lila
Lila is one spelling shared by separate name histories. In Hindi, Lila comes from Sanskrit līlā, “play” or “amusement”. In English it can instead be a form of Leila or a short version of Delilah, pronounced LYE-luh. Those roots are unrelated, so the name should be presented with its alternatives rather than a single attractive but misleading translation.
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About Lila
Recorded as a dog’s name
Lila appears in 52 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/lilə/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/lilə/ · primary stress on syllable 1L IY1 L AH0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.