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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Leiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Leiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,002 people with the first name Leiah, which placed it at #12,418 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#12,418
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,002 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leiah is White at 39.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.8%) and Black (21.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Leiah described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Leiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.2% · 393
- Hispanic or Latino24.8% · 248
- Black or African American21.6% · 216
- Two or more races8.3% · 83
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.6% · 56
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 6
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.
How common was Leiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,002 people with the name Leiah, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,418 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Leiah in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Leiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leiah appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,009 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Leiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leiah is White at 39.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.8%) and Black (21.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Leiah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.2% (393 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Leiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Leiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leiah in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Leiah can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people have Leiah as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Leiah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.