I love it, it's sweet, pretty and feminine. It was my favorite name for about ten years and I still love it but I wouldn't use it anymore.
First of all I have other top favorites now but another reason is its popularity and the fact that the alternate spelling of
Lilly is rising quickly. I have no problems with a top 100 name at all but
Lily is almost in the top 20 which is too common, even for me. There'd be at least one other
Lily in each and every one of her classes if you ask me. If not there will be a
Lilly or a
Lillian who goes by
Lily.
Liliana is rising as well (if you combine spellings it's in the top 100).
As for the alternate spelling of
Lilly, I hate it with a passion! It looks so unsymmetrical and heavy and isn't as elegant and pretty as
Lily. I also fear that soon people will accept it as the standard spelling and spell it
Lilly when they hear it. Kind of like with
Zoey which is rising and might soon be more common than
Zoe. I do however like
Lili and
Lillie as they look symmetrical to me.
Lilli looks bad to me, though.
I love
Lily and
Lilia (nicknamed
Lily occasionally) equally. So whether you used
Lily or
Lilia would make no difference. I'd use
Lilia simply because it's less common and she could go by that if there was another
Lily in her class. I definitely think it works as a full name, though. I also like
Liliana.
Lilith sounds nice but I dislike the history of the name so I wouldn't use it.
Lillian looks heavy to me but
Lilian isn't too bad. Still I don't like Lillian/Lilian much.
I don't think it's boring. Even though it's common it still retains its charm. Still I hope it will lose popularity soon.
Oh and I wouldn't underestimate its popularity. First of all you'd need to think of combining all the different spellings that make the top 1000 (
Lily,
Lilly,
Lillie) which would push it up higher to number 20. Then you also need to consider all the names
Lily could be a nickname for. I think most Lillians and Lilianas will go by
Lily, at least occasionally.
Lillian is at number 47 when you combine the popularity of both spellings that make the top 1000 (
Lillian and
Lilian) and
Liliana is at number 91 (
Liliana, Lilliana,
Lilyana, Lilianna, Lillianna).
Lilia is also in the top 1000. Just something to think about.