Laika
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A type of hunting dog from Russia (kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations))
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 20 countries · latest register: naampy, 2014
/ɫaiːka/(machine-generated) Turkish · model-generated
Laika is a female given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in India than in any other country. Laika is also written লাইক in Bengali.
- GPGuadeloupe≈1 in 8.1K(inferred from the name graph)
- GAGabon≈1 in 17K
- DKDenmark1 in 255K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Laika itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. Countries with no figure are shown too: flat where a national register lists the name without counting it, hatched where only our records hold it. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- India (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 74 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 8.1K (inferred from the name graph)
≈5,300 people, est.
recorded for this name
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Guadeloupe, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Laika in other scripts: Bengali
(measured from records)One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled লাইক in BD Bangladesh.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
How to pronounce Laika
- Turkish:/ɫaiːka/(machine-generated) model-generated
- Spanish:/laika/(machine-generated) model-generated
Readings marked model-generated were transcribed by a model; the others are quoted from the dictionary named.
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)A type of hunting dog from Russia.
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
How Laika is read
(measured from records)Laika is one spelling over 5 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- Hindi25%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Laika in Hindi.
- Turkish18%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Laika in Turkish.
- English13%
A type of hunting dog from Russia.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- French12%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Laika in French.
- Spanish11%
laika (dog breed)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Laika, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Laika counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | — | ≈5,300 est. | ≈1 in 273K | 2 | Laika | 12 |
| TZ Tanzania | — | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 45K | — | Laika | 6 |
| BD Bangladesh | — | ≈710 est. | ≈1 in 244K | — | লাইক | 6 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈540 est. | ≈1 in 530K | — | Laika | 25 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈400 est. | ≈1 in 288K | — | Laika | 37 |
| GA Gabon | — | ≈150 est. | ≈1 in 17K | 2 | — | — |
| GP Guadeloupe | — | ≈56 est. | ≈1 in 8.1K | 5 | — | — |
| DK Denmark | — | 23 | 1 in 255K | 23 | — | — |
| AL Albania | — | 23as Like | 1 in 134K | 14 | — | — |
| MW Malawi | #744 | — | — | — | Laika | 3 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); INSTAT Albania — Search the name (given-name counts); INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (births by department), dpt 971 (Guadeloupe); Ministere de l'Interieur — 2025 candidate lists (local + legislative). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Laika is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Latvian, genitive singular of laiks
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Polish, genitive singular of laik
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In kac, book
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In umb, v. auxil., to be about to
as a wordVocabulary of the Umbundu Language
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
How to address them
(machine-generated)A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence
(measured from records)25 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 20 countries.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Laika a male or female name?
- Laika is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Laika mean, and where does it come from?
- A type of hunting dog from Russia. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Laika?
- It depends on the language: in Turkish /ɫaiːka/; in Spanish /laika/. Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.
- Which countries have the most people named Laika?
- Mondonomo estimates about 5.3 thousand people named Laika in India, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled laika. After it come Tanzania, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines; the country table on this page ranks them.
- How common is the name Laika?
- In Denmark, the national register counted 23 people named Laika, about 1 in 255 thousand residents.
- How common is Laika compared with other names?
- In Malawi, Laika is the 744th most common given name of 3,102 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Laika?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/laikaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Laika” — the 744th most common given name in Malawi. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.