Is Lillian in the Bible? No, but Elizabeth and the Lily Both Are

Lillian is not in the Bible. The name was probably first a pet form of Elizabeth, and it has long been linked with the lily, Latin lilium. Both are in Scripture: Elizabeth is the mother of John the Baptist, and Jesus told his hearers to “consider the lilies of the field.”

What does Lillian mean?

Lillian has been used in England since the 16th century. Name references give it two sources. It was probably first a diminutive of Elizabeth, and it can also be read as a longer form of Lily, from the Latin lilium. The two explanations do not exclude each other.

Lilian is a variant spelling, and in French and Romanian Lilian is also a man’s name. Liliana is a Latin form of the name.

Is Lillian in the Bible?

No one in the Old or New Testament is named Lillian or Lilian, and the name has no Hebrew origin. Its links to Scripture come through Elizabeth and the lily.

The first is Elizabeth. In Hebrew the name is Elisheba, “my God is an oath,” and it belonged to the wife of Aaron (Exodus 6:23). In the New Testament Elizabeth is the wife of the priest Zechariah and the mother of John the Baptist. Luke says of the couple that “they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord” (Luke 1:6).

The second is the lily. The Hebrew word for lily is shoshan, and from it comes the Hebrew name Shoshannah, which came into English, through Greek, as Susanna. So the Bible name that means “lily” is Susanna, not Lillian. A Susanna is among the women who traveled with Jesus and provided for him and the Twelve “out of their means” (Luke 8:1–3). Another Susanna, a woman falsely accused of adultery whom the young Daniel proves innocent, is the heroine of a story that Catholic Bibles print as Daniel 13. Orthodox Bibles also include it; most Protestant Bibles leave it out or place it among the Apocrypha.

Lilies in the Bible

The best-known lilies in the Bible are in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus uses them to teach his followers not to worry about what they will wear: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:28–29). Luke gives the same saying (Luke 12:27).

The flower appears elsewhere too. In the Song of Songs the beloved says, “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys,” and her lover answers, “As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women” (Song of Songs 2:1–2). The capitals on top of the two bronze pillars at the entrance of Solomon’s temple were “of lily-work,” and the rim of the great bronze basin was made “like the flower of a lily” (1 Kings 7:19–26). No one is sure which flower the biblical writers meant. The white Madonna lily of later Christian art, for example, grows mainly in the mountains, not in valleys.

The lily in Christian art

The white lily became a symbol of chastity in Catholic and some Orthodox art, and above all of the Virgin Mary, which is why it is called the Madonna lily. Medieval paintings of the Annunciation often show the angel Gabriel handing Mary a white lily.

Is there a Saint Lillian?

No canonized saint bears the name Lillian.

One well-known Christian named Lillian was Lillian Trasher (1887–1961), an American missionary in Egypt. Around 1911, in Assiut, she took in the baby of a dying mother, and from that child grew an orphanage. She later joined the Assemblies of God, and by her death the orphanage was caring for about 1,200 children. She is remembered as the “Nile Mother.”

How popular is Lillian?

In the United States Lillian ranked 10th among girls’ names in 1898, 1899, 1900 and 1901. It fell to 486th in 1978, came back to 22nd in 2010 and 2011, and ranked 57th in 2025.

Related reading

• Is Lily a Name with Biblical Roots? The Flower Is There, the Name Is Not
• Does the Name Elizabeth Hold Biblical Significance? Yes, She Is John’s Mother
• 18 Bible Verses About Flowers, and Why Scripture Keeps Saying They Fade
• Is Your Name in the Bible? A Directory of 231 Names