Meaning and background
The story behind Lili
Lili has established use in German, French and Hungarian as a shortened affectionate form of Elisabeth and other names containing li. It sometimes also evokes the German word Lilie, “lily”, but that association does not explain every bearer’s name. Native pronunciations differ slightly: German has a short first vowel, while French generally has two clear lee syllables. The spelling should remain distinct from Lily.
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About Lili
Recorded as a dog’s name
Lili appears in 17 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
/lɪli/
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
/lɪli/ · primary stress on syllable 1L IH1 L IY0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- 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.