Leilah
Feminine · “night”
Leilah is night, in Arabic and Hebrew alike, and it belongs to the woman at the center of the greatest love story of the Islamic world.
How old is the name Leilah?
Leilah first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Leilah is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,200 people named Leilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leilah most popular?
Leilah peaked in 2010, reaching #1000 nationally. Today it ranks #1652, 652 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From laylah to Leilah
The story of Leilah
Layla and Majnun is the Arabic story Nizami turned into a Persian masterpiece in 1188 — the model for a thousand years of doomed love poetry across the Islamic world, and the source of the English word for a lovesick madman by way of majnun. Leilah is one of many English spellings and appears in current American use.
Meaning
night
From the Arabic layla and the Hebrew laylah, both 'night' — the same Semitic root. In rabbinic tradition Lailah is also the angel of conception, who teaches the unborn child the whole Torah and makes it forget at birth. The word is ordinary and the meaning undisputed.
How the name formed
- laylah
- Layla
- Leilah
Related forms: ليلى · Layla · Leila · Leyli
Pronouncing Leilah
LAY-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some bearers say LEE-luh, following the Leila spelling, and both are in use.
Nicknames for Leilah
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
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 2010251 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1000reached in 2010
- Change vs 2024
- +8.7%125 in 2025, from 115
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.
Leilah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- ليلى in Arabic — transliteration
- Layla in English — spelling variant
- Leila in English — spelling variant
- Leyli in Persian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Leilahs among us
people named Leilah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 12,858 born in 2025 was named Leilah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leilah
- #1652
- Leilah on the 2025 chart
- #174
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leilah went to 125 girls in 2025, but Leila, Leyla 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 — 1,478 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 872 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 12,858 for Leilah 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 Tarra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leilah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tarra climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tarra's path sketches the road Leilah is walking now.
Leilah 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 Leilah is headed
Leilah is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Leilah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leilah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The night meaning is concrete and identical in Arabic and Hebrew.
- One of the great love stories of world literature carries it.
- The angel-of-conception tradition is a genuinely remarkable detail.
- At least five spellings of the sound are in common use.
- The first vowel splits between two readings depending on spelling.
- Layla is much the commoner American form.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Leilah
Feminine · #1652 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leilahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Leilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leilah?
- Leilah is one of 4 recorded spellings. Leila is the more common one — 1,193 births in 2025 against 125 for Leilah.
- How popular is the name Leilah in 2025?
- Leilah ranks #1652 among US girl names in 2025, with 125 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leilah?
- About 1 in every 12,858 US girls born in 2025 was named Leilah — 125 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leilah with classmates?
- Leilah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leilah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Baker#1652 · Royal#1652 · Hailie#1652 · Adilene#1652 · Stacy#1652 · Abbie#1652 · Aylen#1652 · Jurnee#1652
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leilah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leilah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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