Humanverse

Leila vs Leilene

American parents have registered 55,447 Leilas since 1880, against 157 Leilenes. Leila is still ahead, with 1,193 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Leila Leilene

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 2007, when Leila had 1,394 and Leilene had 81.

Side by side

  Leila Leilene
Total US births 55,447157
Most in one year 1,50981
Babies in 2025 1,193under 5
Estimated living today 41,000160
Median age today 1518
Peak year 20102007
Best rank 205th girls2,348th girls
Rank in 2025 259thunranked
First recorded 18802007
Girls / boys 55,436 / 11157 / 0

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 Leilenes alive today are over 18; half the Leilas are over 15. That is 3 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: Leila and Leilene.