Leya
Derived from the Greek word "layla" meaning "night" or "born at night".
Name Census estimates that about 1,587 living Americans carry the first name Leya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Leya today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leya births was 2024 (79 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leya. 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 Leya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Leya 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
1.6K
~ 1 in 215,976 Americans
Peak year
2024
79 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,331
Tracked since 1968
Census
Leya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,372 people with the first name Leya, which placed it at #9,907 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
#9,907
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,372 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leya is White at 42.6%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Hispanic (18.5%). 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 Leya 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 Leya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.6% · 585
- Black or African American20.3% · 279
- Hispanic or Latino18.5% · 254
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.1% · 152
- Two or more races6.9% · 94
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 8
Popularity
Leya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leya 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 511 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Leya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leya 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 Leya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Leya, while Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 40 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leya
The name Leya has its origins in the Sanskrit language, which was spoken in ancient India. It is believed to have first emerged around the 5th century BCE. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word "leya," which means "to dissolve" or "to merge."
In Hindu philosophy, the concept of "leya" refers to the dissolution of the individual self into the ultimate reality or the divine consciousness. It is associated with the idea of transcending the ego and achieving spiritual enlightenment. The name Leya may have been given to children as a symbolic representation of this profound philosophical concept.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Leya can be found in ancient Hindu texts and scriptures. One notable example is the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu scripture composed between the 5th and 2nd centuries BCE, which mentions the concept of "leya" in its teachings.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Leya. One of the earliest known was Leya of Kashi, a renowned Indian philosopher and scholar who lived in the 7th century CE. She is celebrated for her contributions to the field of metaphysics and her teachings on the nature of consciousness.
Another prominent figure was Leya Devi, a 13th-century Indian mystic and poet from the region of Bengal. Her devotional lyrics and spiritual compositions are still revered and studied by scholars of Indian literature and philosophy.
In the 16th century, Leya Kumari was a celebrated Indian painter and artist who gained recognition for her intricate and vibrant miniature paintings, which often depicted scenes from Hindu mythology and folklore.
Moving forward in time, Leya Matthyssen was a 19th-century Dutch writer and educator who played a significant role in promoting women's education and advocating for gender equality in the Netherlands. She was born in 1832 and passed away in 1912.
Another noteworthy figure was Leya Sefanaia, a 20th-century Samoan author and activist who dedicated her life to preserving and promoting the traditional arts and culture of Samoa. She was born in 1923 and lived until 2002, leaving behind a rich legacy of literary works and cultural contributions.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have borne the name Leya, each contributing to various fields and leaving their mark on the world in their own unique ways.
People
Leya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leya 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
Leya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,587 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leya 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 215,976 US residents.
Is Leya a common name?
We classify Leya as "Rare". It ranks above 92.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,619 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leya most popular?
The single biggest year for Leya was 2024, when 79 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leya 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 Leya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,372 people with the name Leya, or 0.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,907 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 Leya 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 Leya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leya appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,385 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Leya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leya is White at 42.6%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Hispanic (18.5%). 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 Leya most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.6% (585 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 Leya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leya 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 Leya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leya 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 Leya 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 common is the name Leya?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Leya at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.