# Leila (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/leila/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | Arabic |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈleɪlə/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Leyla, Leilah, Leylah, Laila, Layla, Lailah, Laylah, Lela, Lelah |
| US babies named this | 55,447 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 11 / 55,436 (100% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 7,107, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Arabic لَيْلَى (laylā). Taken into English usage through nineteenth-century literature.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 1,377 | 231 |
| 2012 | 1,365 | 234 |
| 2013 | 1,472 | 215 |
| 2014 | 1,331 | 243 |
| 2015 | 1,309 | 248 |
| 2016 | 1,395 | 229 |
| 2017 | 1,410 | 220 |
| 2018 | 1,358 | 239 |
| 2019 | 1,388 | 225 |
| 2020 | 1,409 | 205 |
| 2021 | 1,385 | 214 |
| 2022 | 1,246 | 246 |
| 2023 | 1,272 | 240 |
| 2024 | 1,197 | 267 |
| 2025 | 1,193 | 259 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1941 | 6 | 3,345 |
| 2017 | 5 | 13,464 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 413 | 136 |
| 2012 | 431 | 132 |
| 2013 | 364 | 143 |
| 2014 | 319 | 171 |
| 2015 | 311 | 177 |
| 2016 | 282 | 194 |
| 2017 | 276 | 192 |
| 2018 | 231 | 221 |
| 2019 | 225 | 218 |
| 2020 | 247 | 200 |
| 2021 | 217 | 231 |
| 2022 | 200 | 236 |
| 2023 | 180 | 254 |
| 2024 | 193 | 249 |
| 2025 | 171 | 268 |

## In other languages

- Arabic: لَيْلَى
- Hebrew: לַיְלָה
- Hindi: लैला
- Russian: Ла́йла, Лейла́

## People named Leila

- Leila Lopes, Angolan beauty pageant titleholder
- Leïla Slimani, French-Moroccan writer and journalist
- Leila Ahmed, Egyptian-American writer and professor
- Leila Abashidze, Georgian actress, film director, and writer (1929-2018)
- Leïla Bekhti, French actress
- Leila de Lima, Filipino politician
- Leila Meskhi, Georgian female tennis player
- Leila Hyams, American actress (1905-1977)
- Leila Denmark, American pediatrician (1898–2012)
- Leila Zerrougui, Algerian legal expert
- Leila Djansi, American-Ghanaian filmmaker
- Leila Barros, Brazilian politician and volleyball player

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.