Leila

About Leila

Leila is a form of Layla, an Arabic name meaning “night,” and is a familiar way of writing the name in Persian. Its literary history reaches from the romance of Layla and Majnun to Lord Byron and modern novelist Leila Aboulela. The same spelling has several established English pronunciations.

Meaning and related forms

The name comes from the Arabic word for night. Leila, Layla, Laila, and Leyla are closely related spellings, reflecting the name’s movement through different languages and writing systems.

Leila is especially familiar as a Persian transcription. Leili is another Persian form, while Leilah adds a final h in English. These belong to the same broad name family rather than supplying different ancient meanings.

English speakers use LAY-luh, LEE-luh, and LYE-luh. Persian Leila is approximately lay-LAH, with the emphasis nearer the end, while Arabic has its own vowel pattern. The different pronunciations explain why the spelling can be familiar even when its spoken form varies.

Lei could be a personal shortening, but the full name already has only two syllables. Its repeated l sound is a distinctive feature across the different pronunciations.

A long literary tradition

Layla is the beloved of Qays, known as Majnun, in an old Arabic love story. The twelfth-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi retold the romance, helping give the name a lasting place in Persian literary culture as well.

The Leila spelling later appeared in Lord Byron’s The Giaour and Don Juan, published in 1813 and beginning in 1819 respectively. Those appearances helped introduce the name to English-speaking readers.

This history gives Leila more than a general association with poetry: it belongs to particular works that carried the name between literary traditions.

Leila Aboulela

Novelist Leila Aboulela provides a modern literary bearer. In Minaret, her central character Najwa begins as a privileged university student in Khartoum before a political coup forces her family into exile.

In London, Najwa works as a maid, far from the life she once expected. Faith and the Muslim community become important sources of connection as her circumstances change.

Her growing relationship with Tamer, the younger brother of her employer, develops within that setting. The novel brings questions of class, displacement, love, and spiritual life together, giving Leila an association with contemporary fiction as well as older romance.

American popularity

Leila’s best American rank was 165th for girls in 1880. Its largest annual count came much later, in 2010, with 1,509 births.

There were 169 girls named Leila in 1950 and 427 in 2000. In 2025, 1,193 girls received it, ranking 259th. The name’s recent growth therefore sits alongside a long earlier presence in American records, rather than representing its first arrival.

How popular is Leila?

In 2025, Leila ranked #259 among girls in the United States, with 1,193 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 1,509 in 2010. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.