Lima
loc · Latin script
Meaning: someone living on the banks of the river of this name (of pre-Roman origin, probably akin to a Celt, element mean¬ ing ‘elm’; cf
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/lima/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Lima is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- PTPortugal≈1 in 33K(inferred from the name graph)
- BRBrazil1 in 577K
- RURussia≈1 in 225Kas Лима
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Lima itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 400 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 33K (inferred from the name graph)
4,183 named Rima, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Portugal, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Rima in US United States, Лима in RU Russia and Laima in LV Latvia.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
someone living on the banks of the river of this name (of pre-Roman origin, probably akin to a Celt, element mean¬ ing ‘elm’; cf. Lemos and Lennox). Liman see Lemon Limb see Lumb Limbert see Lombard Limpertz see Lambert
Sources 1
- The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Lima, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Lima counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 4,183as Rima | 1 in 80K | 21K | Rima | 400 |
| LV Latvia | 2,158as Laima | 1 in 872 | 2.2K | Laima | 9 |
| SE Sweden | 1,022as Rima | 1 in 10K | 1K | — | 54 |
| AR Argentina | ≈920 est. | ≈1 in 50K | 15K | Lima | 104 |
| RU Russia | ≈630 est. | ≈1 in 225K | #1,376 | Лима | 104 |
| MD Moldova | 432as Rima | 1 in 7.8K | 432 | — | 2 |
| BR Brazil | 367 | 1 in 577K | 6.7K | Lima | 302 |
| PT Portugal | ≈310 est. | ≈1 in 33K | listed | Lima | 181 |
| DK Denmark | 209as Rima | 1 in 28K | 209 | — | 1 |
4,183 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); PMLP — Personu vārdi (given names in population register); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); e-services.md — living population register; Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Lima is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Spanish, topographic name for someone living on the banks of the river of this name (of pre-Roman origin, probably akin to a Celtic element lemos, limos ‘elm’).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In Spanish, of uncertain derivation; possibly from lima ‘file’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In Portuguese, lime (fruit)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, city. OH
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In umb, cultivate. *Lzmbay v. a., slip the memory
as a wordVocabulary of the Umbundu Language
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Jorge Ben Jorb. 1942BRnot in their usual nameBrazilian recording artist, musician, songwriter
- Kevin Limab. 1962USAmerican animator and director
- Fernanda Limab. 1977BRBrazilian actress
- Ildefons Limab. 1979ESAndorran association football player
- Adriana Limab. 1981BRBrazilian model
- Floriana Limab. 1981USAmerican actress
- Pepeb. 1983BRnot in their usual namePortuguese association football player
- Hernanesb. 1985BRnot in their usual nameBrazilian association football player
- Jeff Limab. 1990USAmerican actor
- Marilyn Limab. 1995FRFrench actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 79 sources across 42 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 21K | #1,708 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 19K | #1,882 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 15K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 14K | #2,449 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 53 | #9,972 |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you pronounce Lima?
- A machine transcription gives /lima/ (IPA) for Spanish.
- What does the name Lima mean?
- Recorded meaning: someone living on the banks of the river of this name (of pre-Roman origin, probably akin to a Celt, element mean¬ ing ‘elm’; cf.
- Where does the name Lima come from?
- someone living on the banks of the river of this name (of pre-Roman origin, probably akin to a Celt, element mean¬ ing ‘elm’; cf. Lemos and Lennox). Recorded by The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles.
- In which country does Lima have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 4.2 thousand people named Rima, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Lima?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 367 people named Lima in 2022, about 1 in 577 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Lima?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/limaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Lima”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.