girl's name
Liyana
lee-AH-na
- Origin Arabic
- Gender Girl
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (E&W)
- Births on record 6,594
England and Wales
#113
2025 births
Liyana is a girl's name with two separate origins that have converged. In Arabic it means "softness" or "tenderness," from lian; in Shona, spoken in Zimbabwe, it means "it is raining" — a blessing, since rain means a good harvest.
- Liyana is a name of Arabic origin.
- Peaked in England and Wales in 2025, when 425 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade in England and Wales.
- Today about 1 in 1,240 babies in England and Wales is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 2004.
Liyana over time
Births per decade in England and Wales, 2000s 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 |
|---|---|
| 2000s | 143 |
| 2010s | 1,232 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,799 |
What Liyana means
Liyana means tenderness or gentleness in its Arabic reading, and it is raining in its Shona one. Both are current, and neither is a corruption of the other.
Where Liyana comes from
The two accounts are genuinely independent. The Arabic Liyana derives from lian, softness or suppleness, related to layyin, gentle, and belongs to a family of names built on pleasant physical qualities. The Shona liyana comes from the verb for raining, and in a farming culture rain is unambiguously good news, so the name reads as a blessing rather than a weather report. A third and weaker suggestion links it to the Hebrew Liya or to Liliana, but that appears to be a modern guess reasoning backwards from the sound. Which origin applies depends entirely on the family, and no dictionary can settle it from the spelling alone.
Liyana in use
Our data first records Liyana in 1994 and shows it peaking in 2025, still rising, at 113 in England and Wales against 1,059 in the United States. Its recent arrival is why the competing etymologies have not been reconciled — the name entered wide use faster than reference works could document it.
How popular is Liyana?
In 2025, Liyana was given to 425 babies in England and Wales, ranking #113 that year. It is well established in England and Wales.
Where Liyana is used
Figures for England and Wales withhold any name given to fewer than three babies in a year, so a gap means the name fell below that floor rather than went unused. Data & sources.
How Liyana is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Lïyana | Lïyana is a rare spelling of Liyana, written with a diaeresis and recorded about 10 times, mostly in France. | 10 |
Names that peaked alongside Liyana
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Liyana also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Liyana over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Liyana
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Liyana 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 Liyana
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Liyana — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Liyana
What does the name Liyana mean?
In Arabic, "softness" or "tenderness." In Shona, "it is raining" — which reads as a blessing, since rain means a good harvest.
Is Liyana Arabic or African?
Both, independently. The Arabic and Shona names arrived at the same spelling separately; neither derives from the other.
Is Liyana a new name?
Fairly. Our United States records first show it in 1994, and it is still rising.
How popular is the name Liyana?
In 2025, Liyana was given to 425 babies in England and Wales, ranking #113 that year. It is well established in England and Wales.
Is Liyana a girl's or a boy's name?
Liyana is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
When was Liyana most popular?
Liyana peaked in 2025, when 425 babies were given the name. It has been rising over the past decade.
What are the nicknames for Liyana?
Liyana is usually shortened to Liya and Ana.
Is Liyana a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Liyana currently ranks #113 in England and Wales. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.