Diminutive of Lily or Elizabeth; associated with the lily flower symbolizing purity.
Lili is the European — particularly French and German — spelling of a name that flows from multiple sources simultaneously. As a diminutive of Elisabeth (from the Hebrew Elisheba, meaning "my God is abundance" or "pledged to God"), it carries one of the most storied naming traditions in Western history. As a standalone floral name related to Lily and Lillian, it connects to the lily flower (Latin lilium), which has symbolized purity, royalty, and resurrection from ancient Egyptian and Greek civilizations through to Christian iconography, where the white lily is the flower of the Virgin Mary.
The Lili spelling carries a distinctly continental elegance. Lili Elbe, the Danish painter born Einar Wegener, became one of the first known recipients of gender-affirming surgery in the 1930s and has since become an icon of transgender history and courage — a life immortalized in The Danish Girl. Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii's last reigning monarch, bore a name that shares this soft phonetic signature, adding royal dignity to the form.
In popular culture, the name has appeared across languages and eras — from the wartime song "Lili Marleen," which became an anthem for soldiers on both sides of World War II, to contemporary use across Europe and the Americas. Lili feels simultaneously intimate and grand: a name whispered in lullabies and written in history books.