Daily AncestorLily
A lily on a gravestone stands for purity and innocence; Victorians used it mostly for girls and young unmarried women.
The lily was a favorite funeral flower and a sign of purity, innocence and, in Christian use, the resurrection and the Virgin Mary. An Iowa study found lilies on graves of girls, adolescents and young unmarried women, and rarely for boys or young men.
The Easter lily points especially to the resurrection. Calla lilies and lilies of the valley carry their own shades of meaning and have separate entries here.
As seen in a recordMidwest or New England town cemetery, 1850 to 1920
Spray of lilies above the name: Our Daughter, Clara Belle Hutchings, 1868 to 1887
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Lily." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/gravestone-symbols/lily. Last checked 2026-10-15.