Leighanna
Feminine · “meadow”
The American South says two names as one. Mary Ann, Betty Jo, Sarah Beth, Bobbie Sue: a double first name, spoken every time, never shortened, and eventually written closed up. Leighanna is that habit finishing its work — two names that have become one word.
How old is the name Leighanna?
Leighanna first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Leighanna alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 1,200 people named Leighanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leighanna most popular?
Leighanna peaked in 1989, reaching #2931 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 7,986 places below that high. See the whole 1989 chart.
Where it comes from
From leah to Leighanna
The story of Leighanna
Double first names were the ordinary pattern in much of the South for generations, and the two halves were not interchangeable with one: a Mary Ann was never Mary. Written as two words for a century, they began to close up, and the closed forms then became names in their own right — Marianne, Roseanne, Ruthann, Leighanna. What makes this one worth a second look is the first half. Leigh and Leah sound identical and share nothing else. Leah is Hebrew and biblical; leah is Old English for a clearing in woodland, the commonest element in English place names and the source of a very large number of surnames. The compound joins a Hebrew name to an English field.
Meaningscholars disagree
meadow, with grace
Leigh is the English word for a clearing or meadow, from Old English leah, and is a surname before it is a name. Anna is Hebrew Hannah, grace or favor. The compound has no meaning as a unit. Leigh is often assumed to be Leah, the Hebrew name, and it is not: they are homophones from different languages.
How the name formed
- leah
- Leigh
- Leighanna
Pronouncing Leighanna
lee-AN-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. LEE-an-uh, front-loaded, is also used, and in Southern families the two halves often keep separate weight, which produces something closer to LEE-ANN-uh.
Nicknames for Leighanna
Moderate
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 200848 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2931reached in 1989
- Change vs 2024
- −27.3%8 in 2025, from 11
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.
Leighanna in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Leighannas among us
people named Leighanna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Leighanna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leighanna
- #10917
- Leighanna on the 2025 chart
- #940
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leighanna went to 8 girls in 2025, but Leighana is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 940th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,977 places above the chart.
- Leighana12
- Leighanna8
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 200,908 for Leighanna 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 Mellody test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leighanna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mellody climbed just as high around 1956, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mellody's path sketches the road Leighanna is walking now.
Leighanna 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
Leighanna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leighanna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both halves are ordinary and familiar, so nothing has to be explained.
- Three short forms, all of which are full names elsewhere.
- It carries a genuine regional naming tradition rather than an invented one.
- Nine letters for three syllables, and Leanna, Liana and Leeanna are all in use.
- The gh is silent and does no work at all except to the eye.
- Most people will shorten it to Leigh or Anna, and the compound will rarely be said whole outside the family.
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What they receive
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Leighanna
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leighannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Leighanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leighanna?
- Leighanna is one of 2 recorded spellings. Leighana is the more common one — 12 births in 2025 against 8 for Leighanna.
- How popular is the name Leighanna in 2025?
- Leighanna ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leighanna?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Leighanna — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leighanna with classmates?
- Leighanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leighanna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leighanna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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