girl's name
Léa
lay-AH
- Origin French
- Gender Girl
- Letters 3
- Popularity Top 100 (France)
- Births on record 268,173
the United States
#848
as Lea, 2025
Léa is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the French form of Leah, the elder sister of Rachel in Genesis. It ranks thirty-eighth in France and is falling steeply from a peak in 2001, when it was given to more than ten thousand babies in a single year.
- Léa is a name of French origin.
- Peaked in France in 2001, when 10,695 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade in France.
- Today about 1 in 531 babies in France is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 1900.
Léa over time
Births per decade in France, 1900s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1900s | 10,400 |
| 1910s | 7,255 |
| 1920s | 6,855 |
| 1930s | 3,185 |
| 1940s | 1,030 |
| 1950s | 720 |
| 1960s | 545 |
| 1970s | 775 |
| 1980s | 6,905 |
| 1990s | 52,340 |
| 2000s | 77,415 |
| 2010s | 39,120 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 10,555 |
What Léa means
Léa means weary, in the traditional derivation from the Hebrew. A competing reading connects it to a word for a wild cow, and a third to the Akkadian for mistress, so the meaning is genuinely unsettled rather than merely debated.
Where Léa comes from
Léa is the French form of Leah, from the Hebrew Le'ah. The traditional gloss is weary or tired, though scholars have long proposed alternatives: a connection to the Akkadian littu, cow, and to an Akkadian word meaning mistress or ruler. In Genesis, Leah is the elder daughter of Laban, married to Jacob by his deception, and the mother of six of the twelve tribes. The French acute accent marks the first vowel and gives two syllables. Léa was one of the defining French names of the 1990s and early 2000s, and its steep fall since is a clear example of a name too closely tied to one decade.
Léa in use
Léa ranks thirty-eighth in France with about 1,165 births in 2025, but our records show its peak in 2001 at more than 10,000 births in that year alone — one of the sharpest rise-and-fall curves in our French data. The unaccented Lea is what other markets record, at 848 in the United States and 629 in England and Wales. Its decline is not a disappearance so much as a name settling after a very large fashion.
How popular is Léa?
In 2025, Léa was given to 1,110 babies in France, ranking #38 that year. It is one of the most popular names in France.
Where Léa is used
French counts are rounded to the nearest five and nothing below five is published, so these figures show the shape of the name's use rather than an exact tally. Data & sources.
How Léa is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Lea | Lea is a spelling of Léa, used in Canada, where it ranks #70. | 58,205 |
| Lèa | Lèa is a rare spelling of Léa, written with a grave accent and recorded about 20 times, mostly in France. | 20 |
| Lëa | Lëa is a rare spelling of Léa, written with a diaeresis and recorded about 10 times, mostly in France. | 10 |
Names that peaked alongside Léa
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Léa also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Léa over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Léa 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 Léa
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Léa — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Léa
What does the name Léa mean?
Traditionally "weary," from the Hebrew Le'ah, though the derivation is genuinely disputed.
Is Léa the French form of Leah?
Yes. The acute accent marks the first vowel and gives the name two syllables.
Why is Léa falling in France?
It peaked in 2001 at more than 10,000 births in one year and has been settling since, as very large fashions tend to.
Who was Leah in the Bible?
The elder daughter of Laban and the first wife of Jacob, mother of six of the twelve tribes.
Is Léa a girl's or a boy's name?
Léa is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
When was Léa most popular?
Léa peaked in 2001, when 10,695 babies were given the name. It has been falling over the past decade.
Is Léa a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Léa currently ranks #38 in France. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.