Leila

Its literary immortality was secured by the 7th century Umayyad poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah, whose unrequited love for a woman named Layla earned him the epithet Majnun (“madman”).

The Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi shaped the legend into the epic Layla and Majnun in 1188, which subsequently inspired versions by Jami, Fuzuli, and dozens of Ottoman and Mughal court poets.

The pairing became the Islamic world’s archetypal tale of doomed romance, comparable in cultural weight to Tristan and Iseult in medieval Europe.

Western audiences encountered the name through Lord Byron, who referenced the legend in The Giaour (1813) and Don Juan.

Eric Clapton’s Layla, released in 1970 with Derek and the Dominos, drew directly from Nizami’s text and introduced the name to millions of Anglophone listeners.

The spelling Leila had already appeared in English novels of the Victorian era, notably Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Leila, or the Siege of Granada (1838).

Across the United States, Leila first entered the SSA records in the 1880s and held a steady presence through the early 20th century before fading mid-century.

It re-entered the top 1000 in 2005 and has climbed consistently since, reflecting a broader revival of Arabic and Persian names in Anglophone naming pools.

The name enjoys strong usage in Egypt, Iran, Turkey, and the Maghreb, alongside diaspora communities in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Contemporary bearers include British actress Leila Farzad, American journalist Leila Fadel of NPR, and Iranian-Dutch writer Leila Slimani, whose novel Chanson douce received the Prix Goncourt in 2016.