Head to head · Girls' names
Laila vs Logan
#413 vs #402 in 2025 · Arabic vs Scottish Gaelic roots · both stepping back from its peak
Logan is a whisker ahead (#402 vs #413 in 2025) and both are stepping back from its peak. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Laila leads 3 measures of 6; Logan leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Laila #851, Logan — — Laila higher
- 1890s: Laila #1517, Logan — — Laila higher
- 1900s: Laila #1887, Logan — — Laila higher
- 1910s: Laila #1672, Logan — — Laila higher
- 1920s: Laila #2302, Logan — — Laila higher
- 1930s: Laila #2684, Logan — — Laila higher
- 1940s: Laila #3448, Logan — — Laila higher
- 1950s: Laila #3025, Logan — — Laila higher
- 1960s: Laila #2685, Logan — — Laila higher
- 1970s: Laila #2017, Logan #5629 — Laila higher
- 1980s: Laila #1703, Logan #1245 — Logan higher
- 1990s: Laila #1508, Logan #355 — Logan higher
- 2000s: Laila #286, Logan #384 — Laila higher
- 2010s: Laila #162, Logan #399 — Laila higher
- 2020s: Laila #313, Logan #358 — Laila higher
Laila stood higher in 13 of 15 decades; Laila has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Laila | Logan |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #851 | — |
| 1890s | #1517 | — |
| 1900s | #1887 | — |
| 1910s | #1672 | — |
| 1920s | #2302 | — |
| 1930s | #2684 | — |
| 1940s | #3448 | — |
| 1950s | #3025 | — |
| 1960s | #2685 | — |
| 1970s | #2017 | #5629 |
| 1980s | #1703 | #1245 |
| 1990s | #1508 | #355 |
| 2000s | #286 | #384 |
| 2010s | #162 | #399 |
| 2020s | #313 | #358 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Laila
night
From Arabic layl, night — the same root behind Layla and Leyla. There is a second, unrelated road: in Norway, Sweden and Finland, Laila is documented as a form of the Sámi name Láilá, itself connected to Helga. Same spelling, two separate origins, and both are genuinely in use.
Laylā (Arabic) → Layla → Leyla → Laila
How it traveled
The Arabic ليلى (Laylā) belongs to a story older than most European literature: Qays, so consumed by love for Layla that he was called Majnun, the madman. Nizami Ganjavi shaped it into a Persian narrative poem in the twelfth century, and from there it traveled through Turkish, Urdu, Kurdish and Malay retellings, carrying the name with it.
Logan
little hollow
From Scottish Gaelic lagan, a diminutive of lag, 'hollow' or 'low-lying place' — the source of the place name Logan in Ayrshire, from which the surname comes. An unrelated Irish surname, Ó Leocháin, was also anglicized as Logan.
lag / lagan (Scottish Gaelic, 'hollow') → Logan (place, Ayrshire) → Logan (Scottish surname) → Logan (given name)
How it traveled
The oldest Logan is a piece of ground: a hollow in Ayrshire in southwest Scotland, whose name gave the local family theirs. Scottish and Ulster-Scots families carried the surname across the Atlantic, where it stuck to the map as well as to people — Mount Logan in the Yukon, Boston's Logan airport, the town of Logan, Utah.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Laila
LAY-lah
LAY-lah is the standard reading in the US and matches the Arabic. Some English speakers seeing it cold will try LIE-lah, and in parts of Scandinavia LIE-la is the usual pronunciation — worth expecting the question once or twice a year.
- Lala — The most common family short form; informal, mostly used by parents and younger siblings.
- Lai — Clipped one-syllable form used among friends; rarely written down.
- Lulu — Informal pet form, not derived from the letters so much as attached to them.
- Lay — Occasional playground shortening in English-speaking settings.
Logan
LOH-gan
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spelling gives the sound away, so it survives phone calls, roll calls and coffee cups without correction.
- Lo — The most common clipping, used among family and friends; works equally for a boy or a girl.
- Logie — Follows the Scottish -ie diminutive pattern; affectionate and household-level rather than public.
- Logs — A teammate-and-classmate nickname, informal and usually short-lived.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Laila if you want…
- a name fewer children share#413 in 2025 — laila will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name past its most crowded yearsLaila is stepping back from its peak
Choose Logan if you want…
- a name most people already know#402 in 2025, 775 babies that year
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Laila
Strengths
- Recognized across Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Urdu and Scandinavian naming traditions, with the spelling intact in all of them.
- Short, two syllables, no silent letters, and easy for a small child to say and write early.
- A documented literary history going back to a twelfth-century Persian poem, plus a famous song built on the same story.
To consider
- Layla, Leila, Leyla and Laela all sound the same aloud, so expect to spell it often. Laila is well established, but it is not the version most Americans reach for first.
- A minority of readers will say LIE-lah on sight. It is a one-second correction, not a lifelong burden, but it will recur.
- The Clapton song is a strong association for older generations and may come up as a joke or a comment more than once.
Logan
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds and known everywhere in the English-speaking world — little risk of lifelong correcting.
- Charts in Canada, Scotland and England & Wales as well as the US, so it travels without translation.
- Short and complete on its own; it needs no nickname, though Lo and Logie are there if wanted.
To consider
- It reads male to most people on paper. A girl named Logan will meet forms and rosters that assume otherwise — manageable, but worth knowing in advance.
- The name rose sharply and is now easing back, so it clusters heavily around people in their teens and twenties. It may sound of a particular moment rather than timeless for a while.
- Very little to shorten. If you like a long name with a private nickname inside it, Logan gives you almost nothing to work with.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Laila and Logan in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Laila and Logan?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
Where Laila and Logan each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Laila or Logan — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Laila or Logan?
- Logan, in 2025: Logan ranked #402 with 775 babies; Laila ranked #413 with 755 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Laila or Logan?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Laila moved down 186 places; Logan moved down 85 places.
- Which is the older name, Laila or Logan?
- Laila entered the US charts in 1884; Logan entered the US charts in 1972. On the American record, Laila is the older name.
- How many people are named Laila and Logan?
- About 42,500 people named Laila are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 31,500 people named Logan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Lailas or Logans in the classroom?
- Laila will almost certainly be the only one in school. Logan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Laila, Logan and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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