Leyla
Feminine · Arabic roots · “Night”
Leyla is the Turkish and Azerbaijani spelling of a name that has been sung about for more than a thousand years — the beloved at the center of the old Arabic story of Layla and Majnun, retold in Persian verse by Nizami in the twelfth century. Two open syllables, no hard consonants, the same easy shape English speakers already handle in Kayla and Sheila.
How old is the name Leyla?
Leyla first appears in US birth records in 1957 — 68 years ago. The typical Leyla is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 10,500 people named Leyla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leyla most popular?
Leyla peaked in 2020, reaching #586 nationally. Today it ranks #611, 25 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Leyla appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From layl (Arabic, "night") to Leyla
The story of Leyla
The name begins in Arabic, where layl means night, and it became famous through the story of Qays, who loved Layla until he was called Majnun, "possessed." Nizami Ganjavi turned that story into a Persian romance in the twelfth century, and from there it traveled through Ottoman, Azerbaijani, Urdu and Central Asian literature, picking up local spellings on the way. Leyla is the form that settled in Turkish and Azerbaijani, where it has been an ordinary given name for generations. In the English-speaking world the name arrived mainly as Layla or Leila, and the Leyla spelling followed families from Turkey, Azerbaijan and the wider region.
Meaning
Night
From Arabic layl, "night"; the same root gives Hebrew laylah.
How the name formed
- laylArabic, "night"
- Laylā
- LeylâTurkish
- Leyla
Related forms: Layla / ليلى · Leylâ · Leyla · Leyli · Layla · Leïla
Pronouncing Leyla
LAY-lah
In Turkish it is closer to ley-LAH, with the stress later and a small glide in the first syllable. Expect some people to try LEE-lah first, since Leila is usually said that way; one correction generally fixes it.
Nicknames for Leyla
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
- 1957
- Most girls named
- 2022504 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #586reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- −5.2%478 in 2025, from 504
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.
Leyla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Layla / ليلى in Arabic — transliteration
- Leylâ in Turkish — same name
- Leyla in Azerbaijani — same name
- Leyli in Persian — related form
- Layla in English — spelling variant
- Leïla in French — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Leylas among us
people named Leyla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,362 born in 2025 was named Leyla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leyla
- #611
- Leyla on the 2025 chart
- #174
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leyla went to 478 girls in 2025, but Leila, 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 — 437 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 872 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 3,362 for Leyla 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 Lindy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leyla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lindy climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lindy's path sketches the road Leyla is walking now.
Leyla 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 Leyla is headed
Leyla 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.
Leyla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leyla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, all soft sounds, and no silent letters — easy to say on first sight for most English speakers.
- Travels intact across Turkish, Azerbaijani, Arabic and Persian usage, so relatives in several traditions will recognize it immediately.
- A documented literary history over a thousand years old, and continuous everyday use in Turkey and Azerbaijan.
- Familiar in sound without being a name a child is likely to share in her own classroom.
- Layla, Leila and Laila all sound close to identical, so this spelling will be asked for and corrected fairly often. Writing it out once, cheerfully, becomes a lifelong habit.
- Eric Clapton's "Layla" is still played widely, and some people will make that connection out loud, usually by singing at her.
- The Turkish pronunciation and the American one differ slightly in stress. Families who use both will simply hear two versions of the same name, which is common enough for names that cross languages.
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Leyla
Feminine · Arabic roots · #611 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leylas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 10,500 people named Leyla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leyla?
- Leyla is one of 4 recorded spellings. Leila is the more common one — 1,193 births in 2025 against 478 for Leyla.
- How popular is the name Leyla in 2025?
- Leyla ranks #611 among US girl names in 2025, with 478 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leyla?
- About 1 in every 3,362 US girls born in 2025 was named Leyla — 478 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leyla with classmates?
- Leyla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leyla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Siena#610 · Halo#612 · Estrella#612 · Ari#614 · Brinley#608 · Ariya#614 · Sierra#614 · Rosalia#608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leyla? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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