Leela
Leela was given to 175 girls in 2025, #1,282 among girls’ names; 4,545 Americans have been recorded with it since 1898 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,470 Americans named Leela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 7 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Leela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Leela mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Leela is “a female given name from Sanskrit used in India, a spelling variant of Lila.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Leela?
#1,282 among girls’ names, 2025
Leela fell from #1,207 in 2015 to #1,282 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.12 to 0.11 per 1,000.
232 babies in 2016, the peak
Leela peaked in 2016, when 232 girls were given it, #1,106 among girls’ names. The 175 births of 2025 are 75% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 175 | #1,282 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 185 | #1,262 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 179 | #1,282 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 179 | #1,321 | 0.11 |
| 2021 | 179 | #1,287 | 0.11 |
| 2020 | 194 | #1,194 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 192 | #1,225 | 0.11 |
| 2018 | 196 | #1,207 | 0.12 |
| 2017 | 217 | #1,146 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 232 | #1,106 | 0.13 |
Every recorded year (71)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 207 | #1,207 | 0.12 |
| 2014 | 218 | #1,146 | 0.12 |
| 2013 | 227 | #1,088 | 0.13 |
| 2012 | 209 | #1,177 | 0.12 |
| 2011 | 201 | #1,202 | 0.11 |
| 2010 | 135 | #1,608 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 141 | #1,598 | 0.08 |
| 2008 | 134 | #1,674 | 0.07 |
| 2007 | 126 | #1,731 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 123 | #1,705 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 74 | #2,390 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 70 | #2,435 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 69 | #2,397 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 46 | #3,118 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 39 | #3,457 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 42 | #3,242 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 28 | #4,153 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 18 | #5,704 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 17 | #5,763 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 16 | #5,937 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 16 | #5,829 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 23 | #4,444 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 15 | #6,124 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 19 | #5,166 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 17 | #5,547 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 25 | #4,063 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,429 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 14 | #5,760 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 21 | #4,061 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 17 | #4,641 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 15 | #4,984 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 23 | #3,573 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 20 | #3,884 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,871 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 12 | #5,753 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 19 | #4,075 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 15 | #4,752 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 14 | #4,817 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 13 | #5,091 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 14 | #4,485 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,848 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 13 | #4,601 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 7 | #7,074 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,710 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 10 | #5,320 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,553 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 8 | #5,731 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 10 | #4,339 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 9 | #4,674 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,422 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,624 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,580 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 7 | #4,925 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #6,132 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #6,016 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 6 | #5,037 | under 0.01 |
| 1942 | 5 | #5,015 | under 0.01 |
| 1941 | 5 | #4,761 | under 0.01 |
| 1920 | 5 | #5,394 | under 0.01 |
| 1918 | 5 | #5,230 | under 0.01 |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,831 | 0.02 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Leela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Leela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 71 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Leela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Leela, and how old are they?
4,470 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 4,545 Americans ever recorded as Leela. The median Leela alive today is 12 years old; half are between 7 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 4,611 people named Leela (4,465 women and girls, 146 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,445 born in the U.S. The Census count is 34% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 5 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 34 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 145 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 263 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,460 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,560 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Leela born?
The states with the most babies named Leela are California, Texas and New York, with 52% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 32 | #899 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 18 | #1,384 | 0.6× |
| New York | 12 | #1,204 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 10 | #1,386 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 9 | #972 | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 9 | #811 | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 8 | #916 | 0.7× |
| Colorado | 6 | #857 | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 5 | #1,684 | 0.6× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,163 | 0.8× |
Where Leela is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Leela is most over-represented in New York: since 1910 it was given 1.2 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Leela with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 276,687 babies since 1880, Leela is the eighth most given (1.6% of them). In 2025 it was given to 175 of their 4,502 babies (3.9%), the fifth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Leela
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Leela and names like it
- Compare Leela and LilaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sLeela peaked in 2016.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Leela since 1910.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Leela.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Leela alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.