Leiah
Leiah was given to 33 girls in 2025, #4,308 among girls’ names; 1,438 Americans have been recorded with it since 1963 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,420 Americans named Leiah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 8 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Leiah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Leiah?
#4,308 among girls’ names, 2025
Leiah fell from #3,238 in 2015 to #4,308 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 28.6 to 20.5 per million.
78 babies in 2012, the peak
Leiah peaked in 2012, when 78 girls were given it, #2,392 among girls’ names. The 33 births of 2025 are 42% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 33 | #4,308 | 20.5 |
| 2024 | 44 | #3,549 | 27.2 |
| 2023 | 39 | #3,876 | 24.3 |
| 2022 | 42 | #3,685 | 25.6 |
| 2021 | 51 | #3,190 | 31.1 |
| 2020 | 47 | #3,316 | 29.1 |
| 2019 | 50 | #3,200 | 29.8 |
| 2018 | 66 | #2,634 | 38.8 |
| 2017 | 57 | #2,917 | 33.0 |
| 2016 | 64 | #2,722 | 36.1 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 51 | #3,238 | 28.6 |
| 2014 | 43 | #3,624 | 24.1 |
| 2013 | 61 | #2,824 | 34.8 |
| 2012 | 78 | #2,392 | 44.3 |
| 2011 | 51 | #3,248 | 29.0 |
| 2010 | 69 | #2,629 | 38.8 |
| 2009 | 47 | #3,492 | 25.6 |
| 2008 | 42 | #3,824 | 22.2 |
| 2007 | 42 | #3,824 | 21.8 |
| 2006 | 42 | #3,707 | 22.1 |
| 2005 | 44 | #3,438 | 23.8 |
| 2004 | 30 | #4,552 | 16.3 |
| 2003 | 25 | #5,028 | 13.7 |
| 2002 | 21 | #5,586 | 11.7 |
| 2001 | 21 | #5,470 | 11.7 |
| 2000 | 11 | #8,903 | 6.1 |
| 1999 | 18 | #5,792 | 10.1 |
| 1998 | 8 | #10,683 | 4.5 |
| 1997 | 8 | #10,363 | 4.6 |
| 1996 | 15 | #6,235 | 8.6 |
| 1995 | 11 | #7,828 | 6.3 |
| 1994 | 8 | #10,108 | 4.5 |
| 1993 | 9 | #9,177 | 5.0 |
| 1992 | 12 | #7,306 | 6.5 |
| 1991 | 11 | #7,717 | 5.9 |
| 1990 | 14 | #6,311 | 7.4 |
| 1989 | 5 | #13,576 | 2.7 |
| 1988 | 11 | #6,902 | 6.2 |
| 1987 | 10 | #7,094 | 5.8 |
| 1986 | 12 | #5,993 | 7.0 |
| 1985 | 12 | #5,868 | 7.0 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,678 | 4.2 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,473 | 6.0 |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,872 | 4.7 |
| 1981 | 16 | #4,632 | 9.6 |
| 1980 | 14 | #5,114 | 8.4 |
| 1979 | 6 | #9,616 | 3.7 |
| 1978 | 5 | #10,659 | 3.3 |
| 1977 | 6 | #9,093 | 3.9 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,719 | 4.1 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,869 | 3.4 |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,525 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,990 | 3.3 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,631 | 3.0 |
| 1963 | 5 | #7,155 | 2.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Leiah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Leiah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 55 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Leiah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Leiah, and how old are they?
1,420 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,438 Americans ever recorded as Leiah. The median Leiah alive today is 14 years old; half are between 8 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 1,009 people named Leiah (1,009 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,181 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 54 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 166 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 552 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 644 |
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 Leiah born?
The states with the most babies named Leiah are Texas, California and Florida, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 11 | #1,987 | 0.7× |
| California | 6 | #2,949 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 5 | #2,343 | 0.6× |
Where Leiah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Leiah is most over-represented in California: since 1963 it was given 1.1 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 Leiah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Leiah?
Leiah is a less common spelling of Leia: SSA has recorded 1,438 Leiah and 18,778 Leia since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 430,044 babies since 1880, Leiah is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 33 of their 6,678 babies (<1%), the seventh 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 Leiah
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 Leiah and names like it
- Compare Leiah and LeiaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sLeiah peaked in 2012.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Leiah since 1910.
- The top names of 2012The year the most babies were named Leiah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Leiah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.