Leilah
Leilah was given to 125 girls in 2025, #1,660 among girls’ names; 4,241 Americans have been recorded with it since 1898 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,170 Americans named Leilah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 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 Leilah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Leilah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Leilah is “a female given name from Arabic, variant of Leila.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Leilah?
#1,660 among girls’ names, 2025
Leilah fell from #1,251 in 2015 to #1,660 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.11 to 0.08 per 1,000.
251 babies in 2010, the peak
Leilah peaked in 2010, when 251 girls were given it, #1,002 among girls’ names. The 125 births of 2025 are 50% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 125 | #1,660 | 0.08 |
| 2024 | 115 | #1,762 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 157 | #1,423 | 0.10 |
| 2022 | 194 | #1,243 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 162 | #1,367 | 0.10 |
| 2020 | 160 | #1,366 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 168 | #1,354 | 0.10 |
| 2018 | 198 | #1,201 | 0.12 |
| 2017 | 205 | #1,194 | 0.12 |
| 2016 | 176 | #1,347 | 0.10 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 196 | #1,251 | 0.11 |
| 2014 | 211 | #1,167 | 0.12 |
| 2013 | 204 | #1,182 | 0.12 |
| 2012 | 189 | #1,271 | 0.11 |
| 2011 | 215 | #1,140 | 0.12 |
| 2010 | 251 | #1,002 | 0.14 |
| 2009 | 216 | #1,165 | 0.12 |
| 2008 | 191 | #1,306 | 0.10 |
| 2007 | 160 | #1,465 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 125 | #1,686 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 99 | #1,940 | 0.05 |
| 2004 | 85 | #2,124 | 0.05 |
| 2003 | 90 | #2,011 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 53 | #2,836 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 33 | #3,908 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 39 | #3,428 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 16 | #6,354 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 12 | #7,810 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 13 | #7,097 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 13 | #6,963 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 9 | #9,197 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 10 | #8,500 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,410 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 9 | #9,167 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 6 | #12,389 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 8 | #9,234 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 12 | #6,492 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 11 | #6,397 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,568 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,876 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 5 | #11,328 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 10 | #6,558 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,463 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,185 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 8 | #7,249 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,557 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 5 | #5,647 | under 0.01 |
| 1928 | 6 | #4,477 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,683 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 6 | #4,579 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 6 | #4,163 | 0.01 |
| 1898 | 6 | #1,610 | 0.02 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Leilah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Leilah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 52 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Leilah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Leilah, and how old are they?
4,170 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 4,241 Americans ever recorded as Leilah. The median Leilah alive today is 13 years old; half are between 7 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 2,797 people named Leilah (2,797 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,313 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% 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 | 3 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 38 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 105 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,770 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,260 |
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 Leilah born?
The states with the most babies named Leilah are California, Texas and Florida, with 69% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 24 | #1,103 | 1.8× |
| Texas | 19 | #1,338 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 8 | #1,625 | 1.0× |
| New York | 7 | #1,756 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 6 | #1,474 | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | #1,520 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,588 | 0.3× |
Where Leilah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Leilah is most over-represented in California: since 1910 it was given 1.8 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 Leilah 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 421,783 babies since 1880, Leilah is the eighth most given (1.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 125 of their 6,977 babies (1.8%), the sixth 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 Leilah
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 Leilah and names like it
- Compare Leilah and LeahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sLeilah peaked in 2010.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Leilah since 1910.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Leilah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Leilah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.