Leya
Leya was given to 86 girls in 2025, #2,166 among girls’ names; 1,705 Americans have been recorded with it since 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,680 Americans named Leya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 6 and 23.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Leya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Leya mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Leya is “a female given name from Turkish or Arabic.”
Borrowed from Turkish Leya and Arabic لَيْيَا (layyā).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Leya?
#2,166 among girls’ names, 2025
Leya rose from #3,047 in 2015 to #2,166 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 31.4 to 53.5 per million.
86 babies in 2025, the peak
Leya peaked in 2025, when 86 girls were given it, #2,166 among girls’ names. In 2024 it went to 79 girls.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 86 | #2,166 | 53.5 |
| 2024 | 79 | #2,338 | 48.8 |
| 2023 | 76 | #2,388 | 47.4 |
| 2022 | 67 | #2,621 | 40.9 |
| 2021 | 74 | #2,433 | 45.1 |
| 2020 | 65 | #2,614 | 40.2 |
| 2019 | 72 | #2,473 | 42.9 |
| 2018 | 52 | #3,140 | 30.6 |
| 2017 | 52 | #3,120 | 30.1 |
| 2016 | 63 | #2,750 | 35.6 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 56 | #3,047 | 31.4 |
| 2014 | 46 | #3,462 | 25.8 |
| 2013 | 46 | #3,435 | 26.2 |
| 2012 | 35 | #4,256 | 19.9 |
| 2011 | 41 | #3,760 | 23.3 |
| 2010 | 48 | #3,389 | 27.0 |
| 2009 | 48 | #3,440 | 26.1 |
| 2008 | 46 | #3,558 | 24.3 |
| 2007 | 50 | #3,363 | 26.0 |
| 2006 | 62 | #2,834 | 32.6 |
| 2005 | 39 | #3,775 | 21.1 |
| 2004 | 39 | #3,717 | 21.2 |
| 2003 | 35 | #3,917 | 19.2 |
| 2002 | 30 | #4,232 | 16.7 |
| 2001 | 34 | #3,832 | 18.9 |
| 2000 | 23 | #5,075 | 12.7 |
| 1999 | 22 | #4,957 | 12.4 |
| 1998 | 14 | #6,923 | 7.9 |
| 1997 | 21 | #4,936 | 12.1 |
| 1996 | 21 | #4,819 | 12.0 |
| 1995 | 11 | #7,834 | 6.3 |
| 1994 | 7 | #11,241 | 3.9 |
| 1993 | 7 | #11,253 | 3.9 |
| 1992 | 13 | #6,880 | 7.1 |
| 1991 | 9 | #9,014 | 4.8 |
| 1990 | 13 | #6,694 | 6.8 |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,689 | 3.3 |
| 1988 | 14 | #5,764 | 7.9 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,625 | 3.5 |
| 1986 | 14 | #5,334 | 8.2 |
| 1985 | 5 | #11,667 | 2.9 |
| 1984 | 10 | #6,563 | 5.9 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,711 | 4.8 |
| 1982 | 15 | #4,832 | 8.9 |
| 1981 | 13 | #5,445 | 7.8 |
| 1980 | 13 | #5,413 | 7.8 |
| 1979 | 13 | #5,273 | 8.1 |
| 1978 | 13 | #5,072 | 8.5 |
| 1977 | 7 | #8,017 | 4.6 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,731 | 4.1 |
| 1975 | 10 | #5,783 | 6.9 |
| 1974 | 9 | #6,021 | 6.1 |
| 1973 | 9 | #5,824 | 6.2 |
| 1971 | 7 | #7,012 | 4.2 |
| 1970 | 8 | #6,094 | 4.6 |
| 1969 | 8 | #5,742 | 4.7 |
| 1968 | 9 | #4,983 | 5.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Leya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Leya has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 57 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Leya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Leya, and how old are they?
1,680 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,705 Americans ever recorded as Leya. The median Leya alive today is 14 years old; half are between 6 and 23.
The 2020 Census counted 1,385 people named Leya (1,374 women and girls, 11 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,259 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 105 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 167 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 581 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 829 |
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 Leya born?
The states with the most babies named Leya are California, Michigan and Texas, with 60% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 12 | #1,805 | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 11 | #714 | 0.5× |
| Texas | 8 | #2,540 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 8 | #1,629 | 0.8× |
| New York | 7 | #1,758 | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,321 | 0.2× |
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 Leya 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 454,251 babies since 1880, Leya is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 86 of their 6,623 babies (1.3%), 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 Leya
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 Leya and names like it
- Compare Leya and LeahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sLeya peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Leya since 1910.
- Turkish namesWiktionary’s origin for Leya: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Leya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Leya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.