Leiah
A feminine name potentially derived from Hebrew "Le-Yah" meaning "for Jehovah".
Name Census estimates that about 1,379 living Americans carry the first name Leiah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Leiah today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leiah births was 2012 (78 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leiah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Leiah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 248,553 Americans
Peak year
2012
78 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,537
Tracked since 1963
Popularity
Leiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leiah from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 589 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Leiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leiah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Leiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Leiah, while Georgia, New York, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 76 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leiah
The name Leiah is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Leah, which means "weary" or "tired". It has its roots in ancient Semitic languages, with similar spellings found in Aramaic and Arabic.
The name Leah first appears in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, where she is described as the first wife of the patriarch Jacob. Leah was the mother of six of Jacob's sons, including Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, who became the progenitors of six of the twelve tribes of Israel.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Leiah was Leiah bat Mordecai, a Jewish scholar who lived in the 12th century in Normandy, France. She is known for her work in biblical exegesis and her contributions to the study of the Talmud.
In the 15th century, Leiah Benveniste was a prominent Jewish philosopher and mathematician from Aragon, Spain. She was known for her work in astronomy and her commentary on the writings of Maimonides.
During the Renaissance period, Leiah Ghiberti was an Italian sculptor and goldsmith born in 1378 in Florence, Italy. She is best known for her work on the famous bronze doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence, which took her over 20 years to complete.
In the 19th century, Leiah Josephine Woodworth was an American poet and writer born in 1837 in Urbana, Ohio. She is known for her poem "The Old Oaken Bucket", which became a popular song in the United States.
Another notable figure with the name Leiah was Leiah Rachel Varnhagen, a German writer and salonnière born in 1785 in Berlin. She hosted one of the most influential literary salons in Berlin during the early 19th century, where many prominent writers and intellectuals gathered.
People
Leiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leiah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Leiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,379 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leiah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 248,553 US residents.
Is Leiah a common name?
We classify Leiah as "Rare". It ranks above 92% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,404 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Leiah was 2012, when 78 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leiah is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Leiah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leiah in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.