Leia
Leia was given to 1,033 girls in 2025, #297 among girls’ names; 18,778 Americans have been recorded with it since 1949 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 18,600 Americans named Leia and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Leia by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Leia mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Leia is “a female given name originating as a coinage.”
From the name of a princess in the American fantasy film Star Wars (1977).
/ˈleɪ̯.ə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Leia?
#297 among girls’ names, 2025
Leia rose from #420 in 2015 to #297 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.43 to 0.64 per 1,000.
1,424 babies in 2023, the peak
Leia peaked in 2023, when 1,424 girls were given it, #211 among girls’ names. The 1,033 births of 2025 are 73% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,033 | #297 | 0.64 |
| 2024 | 1,099 | #289 | 0.68 |
| 2023 | 1,424 | #211 | 0.89 |
| 2022 | 1,216 | #257 | 0.74 |
| 2021 | 1,078 | #296 | 0.66 |
| 2020 | 1,088 | #296 | 0.67 |
| 2019 | 958 | #334 | 0.57 |
| 2018 | 1,120 | #296 | 0.66 |
| 2017 | 1,162 | #278 | 0.67 |
| 2016 | 1,016 | #322 | 0.57 |
Every recorded year (70)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 766 | #420 | 0.43 |
| 2014 | 611 | #510 | 0.34 |
| 2013 | 509 | #569 | 0.29 |
| 2012 | 422 | #671 | 0.24 |
| 2011 | 351 | #775 | 0.20 |
| 2010 | 323 | #834 | 0.18 |
| 2009 | 342 | #825 | 0.19 |
| 2008 | 293 | #930 | 0.15 |
| 2007 | 288 | #940 | 0.15 |
| 2006 | 272 | #964 | 0.14 |
| 2005 | 206 | #1,137 | 0.11 |
| 2004 | 160 | #1,334 | 0.09 |
| 2003 | 142 | #1,403 | 0.08 |
| 2002 | 152 | #1,293 | 0.08 |
| 2001 | 125 | #1,501 | 0.07 |
| 2000 | 123 | #1,496 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 103 | #1,624 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 94 | #1,697 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 106 | #1,526 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 65 | #2,116 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 87 | #1,690 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 48 | #2,604 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 65 | #2,098 | 0.04 |
| 1992 | 67 | #2,039 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 60 | #2,200 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 69 | #1,977 | 0.04 |
| 1989 | 63 | #2,010 | 0.03 |
| 1988 | 66 | #1,877 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 73 | #1,670 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 70 | #1,679 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 86 | #1,452 | 0.05 |
| 1984 | 94 | #1,310 | 0.06 |
| 1983 | 135 | #1,038 | 0.08 |
| 1982 | 99 | #1,287 | 0.06 |
| 1981 | 126 | #1,104 | 0.08 |
| 1980 | 162 | #923 | 0.10 |
| 1979 | 118 | #1,139 | 0.07 |
| 1978 | 156 | #911 | 0.10 |
| 1977 | 98 | #1,236 | 0.06 |
| 1976 | 21 | #3,356 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 20 | #3,456 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 21 | #3,266 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 14 | #4,256 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 18 | #3,472 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 29 | #2,571 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 23 | #2,991 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 19 | #3,154 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 23 | #2,672 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 35 | #1,990 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 26 | #2,381 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 31 | #2,138 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 21 | #2,780 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 23 | #2,584 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 20 | #2,776 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 17 | #3,128 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 5 | #6,883 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,540 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,208 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,724 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 7 | #4,472 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Leia a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Leia has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 70 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Leia: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Leia, and how old are they?
18,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 18,778 Americans ever recorded as Leia. The median Leia alive today is 9 years old; half are between 4 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 11,311 people named Leia (11,284 women and girls, 27 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 11,973 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 91 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 766 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,240 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,470 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 13,000 |
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 Leia born?
The states with the most babies named Leia are California, Texas and Florida, with 43% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 242 | #125 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 104 | #328 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 88 | #215 | 1.2× |
| New York | 54 | #315 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 34 | #326 | 0.7× |
| Arizona | 31 | #222 | 1.1× |
| Michigan | 30 | #298 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 28 | #370 | 0.8× |
| Washington | 25 | #295 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 24 | #465 | 0.7× |
Where Leia is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Leia is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1949 it was given 3.3 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 Leia 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 463,110 babies since 1880, Leia is the sixth most given (4.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,033 of their 7,015 babies (15%), the third 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 Leia
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 Leia and names like it
- Compare Leia and LeahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sLeia peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Leia since 1910.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Leia: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Leia.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Leia alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.