Given name
Leelah
“a beauty of the night; born at nightfall”
Leelah is a variant of Laila. One Arabic interpretation is “a beauty of the night; born at nightfall.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
Leelah is a variant of Laila. One Arabic interpretation is “a beauty of the night; born at nightfall.”
Explained through its name family
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2000. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Leelah through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 446
- 0 boys · 446 girls
- Most popular year
- 2018
- 32 babies
- 2025
- 19
- #6,238 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −30%
- Easing
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 19 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 6,238 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 30.1% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for girls was 32 in 2018. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 314 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 4
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Leelah
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.