Leila ( fa, لیلا, ar, ليلى, he, לילה) is a feminine

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...

primarily in the

Semitic Semitic most commonly refers to the Semitic languages, a name used since the 1770s to refer to the language family currently present in West Asia, North and East Africa, and Malta. Semitic may also refer to: Religions * Abrahamic religions ** ...

(Arabic, Hebrew) and Iranian languages. In Latin alphabet the name is commonly spelled in multiple ways, including Laela, Laelah, Laila, Layla, Laylah, Leila, Leilah, Leela, Leighla, Lejla, Leyla and Leylah. () in Aramaic, () in Hebrew, () or () in Arabic, and () in Syriac. In Hebrew and Arabic the word Leila or Laila means "night", "dark" and the name is often given to girls born during the night, signifying "daughter of the night". The story of ''

Qays and Layla ''Layla & Majnun'' ( ar, مجنون ليلى ; Layla's Mad Lover) is an old story of Arab origin, about the 7th-century Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabit ...

'' or ''Layla and Majnun'' is based on the romantic poems of Qais Ibn Al-Mulawwah ( ar, links=no, قيس بن الملوح) in 7th century Arabia, who was nicknamed Majnoon Layla (), Arabic for "madly in love with Layla", referring to his cousin Layla Al-Amiriah (). His poems are considered the paragon of unrequited chaste love. They later became a popular romance in medieval Iran, and use of the name spread accordingly. The name gained popularity further afield in the Persianate world, amongst Turkic peoples and in the Balkans and India. In the Nordic countries, Laila or Lajla is derived from the Sami languages, Sami name ''Láilá'', the Sami variant of Helga which means "holy".

People with this name

Laila

*Laila Akhmetova, Kazakh doctor of historical sciences *Laila Ali, boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali *Laila Ali Abdulla, First Lady of the Maldives *Laila Bagge, Swedish manager and songwriter *Laila Bērziņa (born 1965), Latvian politician *Laila Bjurling (born 1947), Swedish politician *Laila Freivalds, Swedish Social democracy, Social-Democrat *Laila Harré, New Zealand politician *Laila Hirvisaari, Finnish author and writer *Laila El Khalifi (better known as Leila K), Swedish singer and rapper *Laila Kinnunen, Finnish singer *Laila Lalami, Moroccan-American novelist and essayist *Laila Mehdin, Indian actress *Laila Morse, English actress *Laila Pakalniņa, Latvian director *Laila Rouass, English actress *Laila Soueif, Egyptian human and women's rights activist *Laila Stien, Norwegian writer *Laila Wasti, Pakistani actress and director *Laila Woozeer, British author and activist *DJ Laila, Filipino radio and television presenter

Layla

*Layla al-Akhyaliyya, 8th century AD Umayyad Arab poet *Layla Balabakki (born 1936), Lebanese writer and activist *Layla El (born 1977), British wrestler, dancer, model, actress, and entrepreneur *MC Layla, Layla Handbury (born 1982), Australian MC *Lili Iskandar, Layla Iskandar (born 2002), Lebanese footballer *Layla Kayleigh (born 1986), G4 (U.S. TV channel), G4 host on the US television program, Attack of the Show! *Layla Kaylif (born 1971), British Emirati singer *Layla McCarter (born 1979), American boxer *Layla Moran (born 1982), British Liberal Democrat politician *Layla Palmer, singer and keyboardist for the band Amity Lane *Layla Taj, Egyptian dancer

Leila

*Leila Aboulela, Sudanese writer *Leila Ahmed, Egyptian-American professor *Leila Anderson, South African performance artist *Leïla Ben Ali, Tunisian political figure *Leila Arab, London-based musician of Persian descent *Leila Barros, Brazilian volleyball player *Leila Bela, Iranian-American musician, actress and writer *Leïla Chaibi, French politician *Leila de Lima, Filipino human rights activist *Leila Denmark, American pediatrician *Leila Forouhar, Iranian singer and actress *Leila Ben-Gacem, Tunisian social entrepreneur *Leila Goldkuhl, American model, contestant on America's Next Top Model, Cycle 19 *Leila Hatami, Iranian actress *Leila Hayes, Australian actress *Leila Hyams, American film actress *Leïla Jaffel, Tunisian politician and jurist *Leila Josefowicz, American violinist *Leila K (born Laila El Khalifi), Swedish singer and rapper *Leila Kasra, Iranian poet and lyricist *Leila Khaled, Palestinian hijacker and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, PFLP member *Leila Lopes (pageant titleholder), Miss Universe 2011 from Angola *Leila Luik (born 1985), Estonian long-distance runner *Leila Mardanshina, Soviet and Russian gas and oil operator *Leila McKinnon, Iranian-Australian journalist *Lelia N. Morris (18621929), American hymnwriter *Leila Mourad, Egyptian singer and movie star *Leila Movarekhi, Iranian Princess of Qajar dynasty *Leila Pahlavi, Princess of Iran *Leila Säälik (born 1941), Estonian actress *Leïla Slimani (born 1981), French-Moroccan writer and journalist *Leila Sobral, Brazilian basketball player *Leila Al Solh, Lebanese public figure *Leila Tong, Hong Kong actress and singer *Leila Vaziri, Iranian-American swimmer, world record holder *Leila Waddell, mistress of British occultist Aleister Crowley

Leilah

*Leilah Assunção, British dramatist, actress and writer *Leilah Mahi (1890–1932), French writer *Leilah Nadir, Canadian writer *Leilah Weinraub (born 1979), American filmmaker and conceptual artist

Lejla

*Lejla Agolli (born 1950), Albanian composer *Lejla Basic (born 1994), Swedish footballer *Lejla Hot (born 1986), Serbian pop singer, musician, and songwriter *Lejla Kalamujić, queer writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina *Lejla Tanović (born 1994), Bosnian mountain bike racer

Leyla

*Leyla Achba, princess at the Ottoman Empire court *Leyla Bağcı (born 1990), Turkish-Dutch footballer *Leyla Chihuán, Peruvian volleyball player *Leyla Gencer, Turkish soprano opera singer *Leyla Güngör (born 1993), Turkish-Swedish footballer *Leyla Mamedbekova, Azerbaijani pathologist *Leyla Mammadbeyova, the first female Azerbaijani aviator *Leyla Milani, Canadian model of Iranian descent *Leyla Neyzi, Turkish academic *Leyla Pınar, Turkish harpsichordist and musicologist *Leyla Qasim, Kurdish activist in Iraq *Leyla Saz, composer, poet and writer of Cretan Turkish descent *Leyla Soleymani, Canadian scientist *Leyla Tuğutlu, Turkish beauty queen *Leyla Vakilova, Azerbaijani ballerina *Leyla Zana, Kurdish politician from Turkey

Leylah

*Leylah Alliët (born 1991), Belgian beauty pageant titleholder *Leylah Fernandez (born 2002), Canadian tennis player

Film, music and literature

* ''Laila'', Norwegian silent film starring Mona Mårtenson *Laila (album), ''Laila'' (album), album by Shahin Badar *''Layla'', song by Derek and the Dominos * ''Leila'', song by Indochine (band), Indochine in the album L'aventurier * ''Leila'', song by Miami Horror in the Extended play, EP Miami Horror#Extended plays, The Shapes *"Leila," an essay by Margaret Fuller *"Lejla_(Hari_Mata_Hari_song), Lejla", a song by Hari Mata Hari, Bosnia and Herzegovina's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 (3rd place)

Fictional and mythological characters

*Lailah, an angel of the night in Jewish mythology *Layla in the classic Arabic love story ''Layla and Majnun'' *Leïla, heroine of Bizet's opera ''Les Pecheurs de Perles'' (''The Pearl Fishers''), 1863 *Layla in the 1st Story Maxi CD 「Seisen no Iberia / 聖戦のイベリア」 of Sound Horizon *Layla (Winx Club), Layla in the animated series ''Winx Club'' *Layla Hamilton in the Japanese manga series ''Kaleido Star'' *Layla Heartfilia in the Japanese manga series ''Fairy Tail'' *Leyla Harding in the British soap opera ''Emmerdale'' *Layla Miller in the Marvel comics, Marvel universe *Layla, from series 3-5 of ''The Story of Tracy Beaker (TV series), The Story of Tracy Beaker'', portrayed by Cara Readle *Reira Serizawa, Layla Serizawa in the Japanese manga series ''NANA'' *Layla in the Japanese manga Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, first introduced in chapter 172 *Layla, a playable Cryo character in ''Genshin Impact'' *Leela (Doctor Who), Leela ''(Doctor Who)'', a companion of the Fourth Doctor (1977–78) *Leela Lomax, a character in soap opera ''Hollyoaks'' *Leela (Futurama), Leela in the Animated cartoon, animated TV show ''Futurama'' *Leila, a playable character in ''Final Fantasy II'' *Reira Purizumuribaa, Layla Prismriver, a character briefly mentioned in the Japanese doujin game series (shoot 'em up) Touhou Project *Leila, a daughter of main character in video game by ''Saber Interactive'' ''Inversion (video game), Inversion'' *Leila Hosnani, mother of Nessim (and Narouz) Hosnani, in Lawrence Durrell's ''The Alexandria Quartet'' *Leila Kwan Zimmer, a character in the Netflix series ''Grand Army (TV series) , Grand Army'' *Lilah Morgan in ''Angel (1999 TV series)'' TV show *Leila Dalton, protagonist of the ''Night Prince'' novels by Jeaniene Frost *Laila, character portrayed by Sunny Leone in item number, item song "Laila Main Laila" from Raees (2017 film), Raees *Layla M. Luzhkova in the Japanese anime series ''Sakura Wars the Animation'' *Lyla Garrity in the television series ''Friday Night Lights (TV series), Friday Night Lights'' *Layla Hassan, character in Assassins CreedAssassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed video game series *Layla El-Faouly / Scarlet Scarab in the Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show ''Moon Knight'' *Laila Lewin in the book series ''The Wheel of Time'' *Leyla Sancak in ''The Protector (Turkish TV series)''

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leila (Name) Arabic feminine given names English feminine given names Estonian feminine given names Hebrew feminine given names Iranian feminine given names de:Laila fr:Leila fi:Laila sv:Laila