Lilith

In the Hebrew Bible, Lilith appears only once, in the Book of Isaiah 34:14, as part of a description of desolation in the ruins of Edom. Rabbinic literature later expanded the figure dramatically.

The Alphabet of Ben Sira, a Jewish text of the 8th or 9th century, recounts a story in which Lilith is created as the first wife of Adam, equal to him, who refuses subordination and flees Eden.

This narrative, though medieval rather than biblical, became influential in Kabbalistic writing, especially the Zohar of the 13th century, and shaped Jewish folklore for centuries.

During the 19th century, Romantic poets and artists rediscovered Lilith as a figure of feminine mystery. Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted Lady Lilith between 1866 and 1873 and wrote a companion sonnet, Body’s Beauty.

George MacDonald’s fantasy novel Lilith appeared in 1895.

Twentieth-century feminist writers, beginning in the 1970s with the founding of the Jewish magazine Lilith in 1976, reclaimed the figure as a symbol of female independence rather than demonic threat.

According to U.S. Social Security Administration records, Lilith first entered the top 1000 in 2010 and climbed rapidly through the 2010s, reaching the top 300 by the early 2020s and continuing to rise.

The trajectory reflects both the broader revival of ancient mythological names and the cultural influence of television series including Supernatural and Sabrina.

The name remains more common in the United States than in the United Kingdom or continental Europe, where traditional biblical names still dominate.