Leyah
Feminine · “weary”
Leyah is Leah with two letters added, and Leah is one of the oldest names still in daily use: the elder sister in Genesis, the one who was not chosen first and who bore six of the twelve tribes. Her name has never been satisfactorily explained, which is unusual for a figure so central.
How old is the name Leyah?
Leyah first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Leyah alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 1,300 people named Leyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leyah most popular?
Leyah peaked in 2011, reaching #2258 nationally. Today it ranks #4758, 2,500 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From La'ah to Leyah
The story of Leyah
Leah came into English through the Bible and was used steadily by Jewish families and taken up by Protestants after the Reformation, when Old Testament names became ordinary in English-speaking countries. It has never really gone away. The h-ending respellings, Leyah and Leiah and Leya, belong to the last few decades, when American families began adding a silent h to names that ended in a vowel, and they also let the name sit closer to Leia, which arrived from a film and is unrelated.
Meaningscholars disagree
weary, or a wild cow
Hebrew La'ah, to be weary, is the traditional reading and the one most bibles print. The competing account takes it from an Akkadian word for a wild cow, which would make it a pair with her sister Rachel, whose name means ewe. Both are serious; neither has settled the matter.
How the name formed
- La'ah
- Leah
- Leyah
Related forms: לאה · Leah · Lía · Lia · Lea
Pronouncing Leyah
LAY-uh
Two syllables, stress in front. Some families say LEE-uh instead, which is how Leah is most often said in English, and the spelling supports both.
Nicknames for Leyah
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
- 1994
- Most girls named
- 201183 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2258reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −28.2%28 in 2025, from 39
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.
Leyah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- לאה in Hebrew — transliteration
- Leah in English — spelling variant
- Lía in Spanish — same name
- Lia in Italian — same name
- Lea in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Leyahs among us
people named Leyah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 57,402 born in 2025 was named Leyah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leyah
- #4758
- Leyah on the 2025 chart
- #269
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leyah went to 28 girls in 2025, but Leia, Leya and Leiah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 1,205, which makes it the 269th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,489 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 1,334 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 57,402 for Leyah 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 Kaysie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leyah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kaysie climbed just as high around 1990, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kaysie's path sketches the road Leyah is walking now.
Leyah 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 Leyah is headed
Leyah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Leyah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leyah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It connects to one of the oldest continuously used names in the world.
- Two syllables and five letters keep it easy to write and to say.
- Both pronunciations are pleasant, so neither reading is a loss.
- Leah is the standard spelling and will be written instead by nearly everyone.
- LAY-uh and LEE-uh both circulate, so the family will be correcting one or the other.
- Leia, from the film, is close enough in look and sound to be assumed as the source.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Leyah to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Leyah
Feminine · #4758 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leyahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Leyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leyah?
- Leyah is one of 6 recorded spellings. Leia is the more common one — 1,033 births in 2025 against 28 for Leyah.
- How popular is the name Leyah in 2025?
- Leyah ranks #4758 among US girl names in 2025, with 28 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leyah?
- About 1 in every 57,402 US girls born in 2025 was named Leyah — 28 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leyah with classmates?
- Leyah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leyah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marylou#4758 · Landon#4758 · Lexa#4758 · Alysia#4758 · Ixchel#4758 · Parisa#4758 · Jumana#4758 · Berenice#4758
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leyah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leyah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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