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Leida vs Leila

American parents have registered 55,447 Leilas since 1880, against 497 Leidas. Leila is still ahead, with 1,193 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Leida against Leila, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Leida Leila

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Leila has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1976, when Leida had 16 and Leila had 160.

Side by side

  Leida Leila
Total US births 49755,447
Most in one year 161,509
Babies in 2025 under 51,193
Estimated living today 40041,000
Median age today 4815
Peak year 19762010
Best rank 3,963rd girls205th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked259th
First recorded 19121880
Girls / boys 497 / 055,436 / 11

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Leidas alive today are over 48; half the Leilas are over 15. That is 33 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Leida and Leila.