← All names

Lyall

Boy name · 299 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Lyall: 299 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to boys, peaking at 17 births in 2013.

Rooted in the Scottish surname tradition, Lyall is most often a variant of Lyle, which itself comes from the Anglo-Norman French *de l’isle* meaning “from the island.” It also has a separate Gaelic connection, where it may derive from *Mac Griogair* or a similar patronymic. The name is borne by David Lyall, the 19th-century Scottish botanist who explored the Arctic and Antarctic, and whose surname lent itself to Lyall Bay in Wellington, New Zealand. Sir Charles James Lyall, a British-Indian civil servant and poet, also carried the name. In modern Scotland, Lyall works equally well as a first name or surname, and shares an air of understated distinction with its close relative Lyle.