Leylah
Feminine · “night”
Leylah is a spelling of Layla, the Arabic word for night — and the name at the center of one of the great love stories of world literature, told and retold for a thousand years.
How old is the name Leylah?
Leylah first appears in US birth records in 2000 — 25 years ago. The typical Leylah is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Leylah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leylah most popular?
Leylah peaked in 2022, reaching #2720 nationally. Today it ranks #3249, 529 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From layla to Leylah
The story of Leylah
The tale of Layla and Majnun was told in Arabia by the seventh century and put into Persian verse in the twelfth, after which it spread through Turkish, Urdu, Azeri and beyond. Layla became one of the most-carried women's names of the Muslim world. English-speaking countries adopted it in the twentieth century, and the spellings multiplied — Layla, Leila, Laila, Leylah — each following a different transliteration habit or none at all.
Meaning
night
From Arabic layla, a night; in classical usage the word carries a sense of the deepest part of the night, and the name is fixed in the language by the story of Layla and the man driven mad by love for her.
How the name formed
- layla
- Leylah
Related forms: Layla · Leyla · Leili · Leila
Pronouncing Leylah
LAY-lah
Two syllables, first stressed. Arabic gives a slightly fuller first vowel, and some families say LY-lah.
Nicknames for Leylah
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
- 2000
- Most girls named
- 202263 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2720reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- +11.6%48 in 2025, from 43
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.
Leylah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Layla in Arabic — spelling variant
- Leyla in Turkish — same name
- Leili in Persian — same name
- Leila in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Leylahs among us
people named Leylah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 33,485 born in 2025 was named Leylah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leylah
- #3249
- Leylah on the 2025 chart
- #174
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leylah went to 48 girls in 2025, but Leila, Leyla and Leilah 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 — 3,075 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 872 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 33,485 for Leylah 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 Naisha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leylah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Naisha climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Naisha's path sketches the road Leylah is walking now.
Leylah 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 Leylah is headed
Leylah 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.
Leylah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leylah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a documented literary history reaching back over a thousand years.
- Two open syllables, easy to say in almost any language.
- Recognized across the Arab world, Turkey, Iran and South Asia.
- Layla, Laila and Leila are all more written in America, so the spelling will be asked for.
- The first vowel is said two ways and neither has won.
- The song of the name is the first association for many Americans over forty.
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What they receive
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Leylah
Feminine · #3249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leylahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Leylah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leylah?
- Leylah is one of 4 recorded spellings. Leila is the more common one — 1,193 births in 2025 against 48 for Leylah.
- How popular is the name Leylah in 2025?
- Leylah ranks #3249 among US girl names in 2025, with 48 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leylah?
- About 1 in every 33,485 US girls born in 2025 was named Leylah — 48 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leylah with classmates?
- Leylah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leylah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aisley#3249 · Quinley#3249 · Rosetta#3249 · Avalee#3249 · Unknown#3249 · Livi#3249 · Delina#3249 · Aniah#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leylah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leylah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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