Leyla

given name · Latin script

Meaning: a female given name from Arabic which means "Dark (or dark-haired) beauty"

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Leyla is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Azerbaijan it is the 2nd most common given name.

rarermore common
  • AZAzerbaijan≈1 in 180(inferred from the name graph)
  • TRTürkiye1 in 443
  • MYMalaysia≈1 in 183as Lee

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 Leyla itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈3,800,000 named Li, est.

#63 (measured from records)

of 15M given names

9 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
670 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 180 (inferred from the name graph)

Azerbaijan, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

LeeLatin(measured from records)
ЛейлаCyrillic(measured from records)
ליליHebrew(measured from records)
ไลลาThai(measured from records)
ԼիլիArmenian(measured from records)
ლეილაGeorgian(measured from records)
리리Hangul(measured from records)
ΙιGreek(measured from records)
ለኢላEthiopic(measured from records)

9 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Lee in US United States, GB United Kingdom, MY Malaysia, Li in CN China, HK Hong Kong, TW Taiwan and Leila in GE Georgia.

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.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

a female given name from Arabic which means "Dark (or dark-haired) beauty"

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Leyla 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.

Where Leyla is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈3,800,000 est.≈1 in 368—Li266
TR Türkiye#56185,2301 in 443185KLeyla114
MY Malaysia#19≈180,000 est.≈1 in 1832.9KLee216
US United States#31164,578as Lee1 in 2K696KLee670
GB United Kingdom#38≈150,000 est.≈1 in 4482.2KLee408
TW Taiwan—≈67,000 est.≈1 in 355—Li187
AZ Azerbaijan#2≈57,000 est.≈1 in 1802.4KLeyla79
HK Hong Kong#63≈23,000 est.≈1 in 309—Li183
GE Georgia#4116,232as ლეილა1 in 24616KLeila39

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: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; TÜİK NIP — most used given names; ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024); data.gov.my — Name Popularity Dashboard (JPN, by decade and ethnicity); Georgia PSDA/SDA civil-registry name statistics (per-token API); Azerbaijan Ministry of Justice — Civil Registry Name Statistics. 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Leyla is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish given name21 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Peru, Chile, Argentina, United States

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

    Also written Lëylä, Lêylã, Leylä, Leylà, Lëyla

  • French given name13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Belgium, Türkiye, United States

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written Leÿla, Leylâ, Ley'La, Lëyla, Léyla

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Leylâ, Leylā

  • a separate given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Ethiopia, Türkiye, Iran

    Also written Lëÿlã, Léylã, Lëylä

39 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Leyla is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • Bom late at night

    as a nameA Handbook of African Names

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.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

190019502000Leila Hyams, b. 1905Leyla Gencer, b. 1928Leyla Zana, b. 1961Leila Meskhi, b. 1968Leila Pahlavi, b. 1970Leila Hatami, b. 1972Leyla Əliyeva, b. 1985Leila Lopes, b. 1986Hazal Kaya, b. 1990Leila George, b. 1992
  • Leila Hyamsb. 1905USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (1905-1977)
  • Leyla Gencerb. 1928TRTurkish opera singer (1924–2008)
  • Leyla Zanab. 1961TRTurkish statesperson (born 1961)
  • Leila Meskhib. 1968GEnot in their usual nameGeorgian female tennis player
  • Leila Pahlavib. 1970IRnot in their usual nameIranian princess (1970-2001)
  • Leila Hatamib. 1972IRnot in their usual nameIranian actress
  • Leyla Əliyevab. 1985AZAzerbaijani journalist
  • Leila Lopesb. 1986AOnot in their usual nameAngolan beauty pageant titleholder
  • Hazal Kayab. 1990TRnot in their usual nameTurkish actor (born 1990)
  • Leila Georgeb. 1992AUnot in their usual nameAustralian actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 89 sources across 47 countries.

Official registers attesting Leyla
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
TR TürkiyeTÜİK NIP — most used given names2025185K#19
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20209.2K#2,595
AZ AzerbaijanAzerbaijan Ministry of Justice — Civil Registry Name Statistics—2.4K—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)2025478—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202022#2,595

Reference works 5

  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • Тахиров, Речник на турските лични имена в България
  • Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Leyla mean, and where does it come from?
a female given name from Arabic which means "Dark (or dark-haired) beauty" Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Leyla have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 3.8 million people named Li in China, more than in any other country we hold.
What are other forms of the name Leyla?
In the etymology graph, Lila, Leila and Laila are forms of the same name in other languages.
Is Leyla a male or female name?
Leyla 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.
How common is the name Leyla?
In Türkiye, the national register counted 185,230 people named Leyla in 2025, about 1 in 443 residents.
How common is Leyla compared with other names?
In Azerbaijan, Leyla is the 2nd most common given name of 28,848 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Leyla?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/leyla

The 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, “Leyla” — the 2nd most common given name in Azerbaijan. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Leyla parses inside a full name →