Leila (name)

Look up Laila in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/layl- in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Leila (Persian: لیلا‎, Arabic: ليلى‎, Hebrew: לילה‎) is a feminine given name in the Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew) and Persian languages.

Etymologically the word comes from proto-semitic layl-, which gives לֵילְיָא (lēləyā) in Aramaic, לילה (layla) in Hebrew, لَيْل (layl) or لَيْلَة (layla) in Arabic, and ܠܹܠܝܵܐ (lēlyā) in Syriac.

In Hebrew and Arabic the word Leila or Laila means "night", "dark"^[1] and the name is often given to girls born during the night, signifying "daughter of the night".^[2]

In Judaism, the identification of the word "night" as the name of an angel originates with the interpretation of "Rabbi Yochanan" (possibly Yochanan ben Zakkai, c. 30–90 AD) who read "At night [Abraham] and his servants deployed against them and defeated them" (Genesis 14:15, JPS) as "by [an angel called] night" (Sanhedrin 96a).

The story of Qays and Layla or Layla and Majnun is based on the romantic poems of Qais Ibn Al-Mulawwah (Arabic: قيس بن الملوح‎) in 7th century Arabia, who was nicknamed Majnoon Layla (مجنون ليلى), Arabic for "madly in love with Layla", referring to his cousin Layla Al-Amiriah (ليلى العامرية).^[3] His poems are considered the paragon of unrequited chaste love. They later became a popular romance in medieval Iran,^[4] and use of the name spread accordingly. The name gained popularity further afield in the Muslim world, amongst Turkic peoples and in the Balkans and India. Variant spellings include Laela, Laelah, Laila, Layla, Leila, Leilah, Leela, Leighla, Lejla, Leyla and Leylah.

In the Nordic countries, Laila or Lajla (pronounced lie-lah)^{[needs IPA]} is derived from the Sami name Láilá, the Sami variant of Helga which means "holy".^[5]

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-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
• DJ Laila, Filipino radio and television presenter

Layla[]

• Layla al-Akhyaliyya, 8th century AD Ummayad Arab poet
• Layla El (born 1977), British wrestler, dancer, model, actress, and entrepreneur
• Layla Handbury (born 1982), Australian MC
• Layla Iskandar (born 2002), Lebanese footballer
• Layla Kayleigh (born 1986), 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
• Leila Arab, London-based musician of Persian descent
• Leila Barros, Brazilian volleyball player
• Leila Bela, Iranian-American musician, actress and writer
• Leila Ben-Gacem, Tunisian social entrepreneur
• Leïla Chaibi, French politician
• Leila de Lima, Filipino human rights activist
• Leila Denmark, American pediatrician
• Leila Forouhar, Iranian singer and actress
• Leila Goldkuhl, American model, runner-up on America's Next Top Model, Cycle 19
• Leila Hatami, Iranian actress, Leila
• Leila Hayes, Australian actress
• Leila Hyams, American film actress
• 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 PFLP member
• Leila Lopes (pageant titleholder), Miss Universe 2011 from Angola
• Leila McKinnon, Iranian-Australian journalist
• Lelia N. Morris (1862–1929), American hymnwriter
• Leila Mourad, Egyptian singer and movie star
• 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 Crowle

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), album by Shahin Badar
• Layla, song by Derek and the Dominos
• Leila, song by Indochine in the album L'aventurier
• Leila, song by Miami Horror in the EP The Shapes
• "Leila," an essay by Margaret Fuller

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 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 universe
• Layla, from series 3-5 of The Story of Tracy Beaker, portrayed by Cara Readle
• Layla Serizawa in the Japanese manga series NANA
• Layla in the Japanese manga Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji. She is first introduced in chapter 172.
• Leela (Doctor Who), a companion of the Fourth Doctor (1977–78)
• Leela Lomax, a character in soap opera Hollyoaks
• Leela in the animated TV show Futurama
• Leila, a playable character in Final Fantasy II
• , 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
• 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
• 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 song "Laila Main Laila" from Raees.
• Layla M. Luzhkova^[a] in the Japanese anime series Sakura Wars the Animation

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leila (given name).

• Leela (name)
• Leila (disambiguation)
• Lilith, name with the same etymological root

Notes[]

References[]

Name list

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