Leela
Feminine · Sanskrit roots · “play”
Leela is the English spelling of a Sanskrit word that sits at the heart of Hindu devotional language: līlā, the divine play. It has been used as a given name across India for generations, and it has kept a long, thin thread through American records rather than arriving in a rush. In the mouth it is two open syllables, LEE-lah, with nothing in it that an English speaker has to be taught.
How old is the name Leela?
Leela first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Leela is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,500 people named Leela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leela most popular?
Leela peaked in 2013, reaching #1086 nationally. Today it ranks #1279, 193 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Leela appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Līlā (Sanskrit) to Leela
The story of Leela
Līlā is an ordinary Sanskrit noun that became a theological one — play, sport, the effortless activity of the divine — and it passed from scripture into everyday use as a woman's name across much of India. The doubled 'ee' spelling belongs to English-language transliteration, chosen because it forces the right vowel out of an English reader without any instruction. Separately, and by coincidence of sound, Leela became one of the many English spellings of Leila and Layla, the Arabic and Persian name for night, which traveled west through Persian poetry and nineteenth-century English verse. The result is a single spelling with two respectable ancestries, and no way to tell them apart on paper.
Meaningscholars disagree
play, sport, divine play (Sanskrit)
As the Sanskrit name Līlā, the meaning is well established: play or sport, and in religious usage the līlā of the gods — the world understood as divine play, as in the rāsa-līlā of Krishna. But this exact spelling is also reached from a second direction, as an English respelling of Leila and Layla, from Arabic and Persian Laylā, 'night.' Which road a particular Leela came by depends entirely on her family.
How the name formed
- LīlāSanskrit
- Lila
- Leela
Related forms: Līlā · लीला (Leela) · Lila · Lilah · Layla · Leyla
Pronouncing Leela
LEE-lah
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling does the work: the 'ee' rules out the LAY-lah reading that Leila and Layla invite, though people who know those names better may still guess wrong once.
Nicknames for Leela
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 2016232 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1086reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −5.4%175 in 2025, from 185
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Leela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Līlā in Sanskrit — transliteration
- लीला (Leela) in Hindi — transliteration
- Lila in English — spelling variant
- Lilah in English — spelling variant
- Layla in Arabic — related form
- Leyla in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Leelas among us
people named Leela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,184 born in 2025 was named Leela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leela
- #1279
- Leela on the 2025 chart
- #687
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leela went to 175 girls in 2025, but Lela, Leelah and Lelah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 280, which makes it the 687th most-given girls’ name of the year — 592 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 5,740 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,184 for Leela itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jacquelyne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacquelyne climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacquelyne's path sketches the road Leela is walking now.
Leela sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Leela is headed
Leela should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Leela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is self-explanatory to English readers — the 'ee' delivers the vowel without correction.
- Two syllables, all open sounds, and no consonant clusters, so it carries clearly across a playground or a phone line.
- Works in more than one language at once: fully at home in Indian families and unremarkable on an American class list.
- Long-established rather than newly coined, with a continuous if quiet presence in American records.
- Has real short forms available — Lee, Lulu — without requiring one.
- It lives in a crowded neighborhood of near-identical names: Lila, Lilah, Leila, Layla, Leyla. Expect a lifetime of spelling it out, and of mail arriving addressed to one of the others.
- The Layla family is far more familiar to most American ears, so some people will read LAY-lah at first sight even though the spelling says otherwise.
- Some American adults will first associate the spelling with a television character — the one-eyed captain in Futurama, or the Doctor Who companion of the 1970s. Harmless, but it may come up.
- She is very unlikely to share it with a classmate, which suits some families and not others.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Leela to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Leela? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Leela
Feminine · Sanskrit roots · #1279 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,500 people named Leela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leela?
- Leela is the most-used spelling in US records — 175 of the 280 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Lela, Leelah and Lelah.
- How popular is the name Leela in 2025?
- Leela ranks #1279 among US girl names in 2025, with 175 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leela?
- About 1 in every 9,184 US girls born in 2025 was named Leela — 175 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leela with classmates?
- Leela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Saniyah#1279 · Antonia#1279 · Karen#1279 · Cassie#1279 · Rumi#1279 · Micaela#1285 · Ryann#1285 · Carmella#1285
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leela and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle