Najla
Feminine · “Arabic "wide-eyed”
The Arabic word for an eye also means a spring of water and the essence of a thing. ʿAyn covers all three, and the connection is visible — a spring is an eye in the ground, and the essence is what a thing is at its source. Najla names a woman with wide eyes.
How old is the name Najla?
Najla first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Najla alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 600 people named Najla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Najla most popular?
Najla peaked in 1978, reaching #3637 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 4,248 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From najlāʾ to Najla
The story of Najla
ʿAyn is one of the most productive words in Arabic. It is an eye, a spring or well, a spy or scout, the essence or self of a thing, and the letter of the alphabet named for it, whose shape derives from a pictograph of an eye. The same range appears in Hebrew ayin. Place names across the Arab world begin with it — Ain, marking a spring — and the phrase for the thing itself uses it. Naming a daughter for the eyes therefore sits in a semantic field far wider than the English word suggests. Najla is used across the Levant and the Gulf; the American figures peak in 1978.
Meaning
Arabic "wide-eyed, having large eyes"
From najlāʾ, the feminine of anjal, describing large and wide eyes — a mark of beauty in classical Arabic description. The word belongs to the same grammatical pattern that forms color adjectives, which is the pattern Arabic reserves for physical qualities. The eye vocabulary is extensive: kaḥīl for eyes that look kohl-lined naturally, and ḥawrāʾ for a strong contrast of white and black.
How the name formed
- najlāʾ
- Najla
Related forms: نجلاء · Najlaa · Necla
Pronouncing Najla
NAJ-lah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with an English j sound. The final Arabic vowel carries a glottal stop that English drops entirely.
Nicknames for Najla
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 200126 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3637reached in 1978
- Change vs 2024
- +116.7%13 in 2025, from 6
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.
Najla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- نجلاء in Arabic — transliteration
- Najlaa in English — spelling variant
- Necla in Turkish — same name
Najlas among us
people named Najla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Najla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tynia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Najla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tynia climbed just as high around 1963, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tynia's path sketches the road Najla is walking now.
Najla 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
Najla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Najla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and belongs to a documented classical vocabulary.
- It is short, two syllables and easy for English speakers to say.
- It is established across the Arab world.
- Najlaa and Nagla are competing transliterations.
- The final glottal stop is lost in English.
- It is rare in the United States and will need spelling out.
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Najla
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Najlas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Najla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Najla in 2025?
- Najla ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Najla?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Najla — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Najla with classmates?
- Najla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Najla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Najla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Najla and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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