Entry № 5799 · Arabic origin

Layla Layla — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ LAY-lah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Arabic
Meaning
"Night, dark beauty"
Syllables
2
First recorded
7th c. CE

A name that means "night, dark beauty".

Layla comes from the Arabic laylah (ليلى), meaning "night." In classical Arabic poetry the night carries a particular weight — it is the time of intimacy, of contemplation, of the beloved. The name is forever linked to the seventh-century tragic love story of Layla and Majnun, in which a poet named Qays falls so deeply in love with a woman named Layla that he is driven mad, and the night and her name become indistinguishable to him.

The song made the name famous in the West; the meaning has kept it loved.

A name carried by a story that has lasted fourteen centuries.

The name in its native script.

ليلى
Transliteration
Laylā
Pronunciation
/ ˈlaɪ.lə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Layla stands.

Layla does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Laylas before her.

Real people
Layla bint Abi Murra
An early Arab poet, traditionally identified as the inspiration for the legend of Layla and Majnun.
7th c.
Layla Moran
British politician and Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon.
born 1982
In fiction
Layla
The beloved in the classical Arabic and Persian love poem Layla and Majnun, attributed to Nizami Ganjavi.
12th c. epic
Layla
Subject of Eric Clapton's 1970 song.
Derek and the Dominos

Names connected to Layla.

The number behind Layla.

6

The Nurturer

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Layla reduce to 6, The Nurturer. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.