Leila
Feminine · “night”
Leila is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 55,436 girls against 11 boys since 1880.
Leila carries an Arabic word for night, and it has been traveling for well over a thousand years — through the Arabic love story of Layla and Majnun, through Persian and Turkish poetry, into English via Byron, who gave the name to a character in The Giaour in 1813. Bizet handed it to the priestess Leïla in The Pearl Fishers in 1863. Two short syllables, one of the oldest meanings a name can have.
How old is the name Leila?
Leila was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Leila alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 42,000 people named Leila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leila most popular?
Leila peaked in 1880, reaching #163 nationally. Today it ranks #259, 96 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Leila appears on these lists:
- Victorian names ready for a second century
- Arabic names in American use
- Soft-sounding names built on liquid letters
- Names ending in -la
- all guides
Works in Arabic families too:
Where it comes from
From Laylā to Leila
The story of Leila
The name begins in Arabic as Laylā and became famous through the story of Layla and Majnun — the poet driven mad by love, a tale told in Arabic verse and reshaped into a Persian narrative poem by Nizami Ganjavi in the twelfth century. From there it spread wherever that story was read: Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and the wider Islamic world. English-speaking readers met it in the nineteenth century through Romantic poetry and orientalist opera, which is roughly when Leila — the French-influenced spelling with the -ei- — settled into English use. It has been on American records since records began, quietly, without ever disappearing.
Meaning
night
From Arabic layl, "night", through the feminine form Laylā. The same Semitic root gives Hebrew laylah, also "night", so the meaning holds across both traditions.
How the name formed
- Laylā
- Leïla
- Leila
Related forms: Layla (ليلى) · Leyla · Laila · Leïla · Laila · Leila
Pronouncing Leila
LAY-la (also LEE-la)
Both are in genuine use in the US, and neither is a mistake. LAY-la is closer to the Arabic and Turkish original; LEE-la follows the older English reading of the -ei- spelling. Worth deciding which one you want to correct people toward.
Nicknames for Leila
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 20101,509 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #163reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- −4.3%1,193 in 2025, from 1,246
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.
Leila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Layla (ليلى) in Arabic — same name
- Leyla in Turkish — spelling variant
- Laila in Persian — spelling variant
- Leïla in French — spelling variant
- Laila in Spanish — spelling variant
- Leila in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Leilas among us
people named Leila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,347 born in 2025 was named Leila
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leila
- #259
- Leila on the 2025 chart
- #174
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leila went to 1,193 girls in 2025, but Leyla, Leilah and Leylah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 1,844, which makes it the 174th most-given girls’ name of the year — 85 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 872 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,347 for Leila 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
Fashion outlook
Leila peaked long ago yet still holds steady — names that survive their own wave usually settle into quiet, durable classics.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Leila is headed
Leila 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.
Leila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leila in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognized across Arabic, Persian, Turkish, French and English — it needs no translation in most of the world.
- Unbroken presence in American records from the very start of them, so it reads neither invented nor dated.
- Two syllables, all familiar sounds, easy for a small child to say and to write.
- The meaning is settled and simple to explain: night.
- Leila, Layla, Laila and Leyla all sound near enough alike, so she will spell it out often. Choosing this spelling means accepting a lifetime of "with an e-i".
- The two pronunciations, LAY-la and LEE-la, both have a fair claim. Teachers and receptionists will guess, and they will not always guess yours.
- Eric Clapton's 1970 song "Layla" fixed that sound in a lot of ears; expect the occasional hummed line back at you.
- Close in sound to Lila, Lily and Leia, which can cause mild mix-ups in a classroom — though a child with this name is unlikely to share it with anyone in her year.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Leila to the vote.
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What they receive
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Leila
Feminine · #259 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leilas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 42,000 people named Leila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leila?
- Leila is the most-used spelling in US records — 1,193 of the 1,844 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Leyla, Leilah and Leylah.
- How popular is the name Leila in 2025?
- Leila ranks #259 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,193 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leila?
- About 1 in every 1,347 US girls born in 2025 was named Leila — 1,193 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leila with classmates?
- Leila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mariana#260 · Adalyn#260 · Journee#258 · Amy#257 · Norah#262 · Juliana#256 · Aliyah#263 · Kaylee#255
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leila? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leila and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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