girl's name
Laila
LAY-luh
- Origin Arabic
- Gender Girl
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 60,000
the United States
#413
2025 births
Laila means night, and the romance built on it ran for a thousand years before Clapton — Layla and Majnun is a Persian retelling of an Arabic story, and it is the source both of the song and of the name's spread.
- Laila is a name of Arabic origin.
- Peaked in 2008, when 2,414 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 4,391 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1884.
Laila over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 7 |
| 1890s | 10 |
| 1900s | 17 |
| 1910s | 175 |
| 1920s | 177 |
| 1930s | 107 |
| 1940s | 89 |
| 1950s | 136 |
| 1960s | 220 |
| 1970s | 474 |
| 1980s | 694 |
| 1990s | 1,098 |
| 2000s | 14,457 |
| 2010s | 19,671 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 6,175 |
What Laila means
Laila means night, or dark beauty. The Arabic layl names the night itself, so the sense passes to darkness of hair and eyes rather than to a temperament.
Where Laila comes from
Laila is the Arabic Layla, from layl, night. Layla and Majnun is a seventh-century Arabic story of a poet driven mad by love, retold in Persian verse by Nizami in 1188 and endlessly reworked across the Islamic world; it is the tradition Romeo and Juliet is often compared to. Eric Clapton's 1970 song takes its title from Nizami by way of a translation he had been given. A separate Hebrew laylah, also night, exists independently.
Laila in use
Laila peaked in the United States in 2008, when 2,414 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now ranks 295th in England and Wales on 151 births — its strongest market — then 370th in Ireland on 11, 410th in Scotland on 8, 413th in the United States on 755 and 1023rd in France on 60, across 60,000 lifetime births in six of the seven markets we track.
How popular is Laila?
In 2025, Laila was given to 755 babies in the United States, ranking #413 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Laila is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Laila is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Laïla | Laïla is Laila written with a diaeresis, used in France, where it ranks #1,023. | 1,550 |
Names that peaked alongside Laila
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Laila also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Laila over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Laila in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Laila
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Laila — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Laila
What does the name Laila mean?
Night — the Arabic layl.
What is Layla and Majnun?
A seventh-century Arabic love story, retold in Persian by Nizami in 1188.
Is the Clapton song related?
Yes — the title comes from Nizami's poem by way of a translation he was given.
Where is Laila most used?
England and Wales at 295th, ahead of the United States at 413th.
How popular is the name Laila?
In 2025, Laila was given to 755 babies in the United States, ranking #413 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Is Laila a girl's or a boy's name?
Laila is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
When was Laila most popular?
Laila peaked in 2008, when 2,414 babies were given the name. It has been falling over the past decade.
Is Laila a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Laila currently ranks #295 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.