Leah

A third proposal connects it to the Hebrew lāʾāh, “to be ruler” or “to rule.”

In the Book of Genesis, Leah is the elder daughter of Laban and the first wife of the patriarch Jacob, given to him through her father’s deception in place of her younger sister Rachel.

She becomes the mother of six of the twelve tribes of Israel, including Reuben, Levi, and Judah, the ancestor of King David and, in Christian tradition, of Jesus.

Leah is buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs at Hebron, alongside Sarah, Rebekah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Christian tradition treated Leah allegorically. Dante Alighieri placed her in the earthly paradise of Purgatorio (canto 27) as a symbol of the active life, contrasted with Rachel’s contemplative life.

The name appeared sporadically in medieval Europe but gained significant traction among English Puritans in the 17th century, who favored Old Testament names.

James Joyce referenced the biblical Leah in Ulysses (1922), and the character Princess Leia in the Star Wars films (1977 onward), though spelled differently, helped popularize the phonetic form.

In the United States, Leah appeared in SSA records continuously from 1880, hovering in the lower hundreds for most of the 20th century. Its ascent began in the 1970s, accelerated through the 1990s, and brought it into the top 100 by 1998.

It peaked at rank 24 in 2010 and remains within the top 50. The name is also widely used in Germany, where it has held top 10 status since 2005, and in Israel, France, and the Netherlands.

Notable bearers include actress Leah Remini, model Leah Wood, and journalist Leah McGrath Goodman.

Its compact phonetics, biblical lineage, and suitability across Jewish, Christian, and secular families account for its remarkable cross-cultural endurance.