Leah

given name · English · Latin script

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Leah is a given name, most frequently recorded in Israel, where it is the 18th most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and Swahili, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: The name is commonly associated with the Hebrew root 'la'ah' meaning 'weary' or 'tired', though some scholars suggest a connection to an Akkadian cognate meaning 'wild cow'.

rarermore common
  • GEGeorgia1 in 169◐
  • ILIsrael1 in 194
  • FRFrance1 in 325

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈499K ●

across 10 countries

#778 ●

of 16M given names

9 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
514 ●

2.3M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 169 ◐

Georgia

Spellings & scripts●

LeahLatin · English●1.4M records
לאהHebrew · Hebrew●347K records
ᲚიაGeorgian · Georgian●70K records
리아Hangul · Korean●7.9K records
ԼիաArmenian · Armenian●557 records
ΛιαGreek · Greek●284 records
ลีญาThai · Thai●34 records
ልያEthiopic · Amharic●17 records
රියSinhala · Sinhala●0 records

9 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Lia in BR Brazil, GE Georgia, FR France and 9 more, לאה in IL Israel, PL Poland, LB Lebanon and 1 more, Ria in EG Egypt, MY Malaysia and Riya in IN India.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

The name is commonly associated with the Hebrew root 'la'ah' meaning 'weary' or 'tired', though some scholars suggest a connection to an Akkadian cognate meaning 'wild cow'.

Sources 1

  • Biblical Names Compiled Database

Attested across 20 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Leah is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
IL Israel#18348,786352K rec.—1.1Kלאה82
IN India—248,050100K rec.—1.1KRiya216
FR France#893208,710△20K rec.1 in 325209KLia207
US United States#369200,7051.1M rec.1 in 1.7K201KLeah514
AR Argentina#473152,23198K rec.—4.1KLia90
BD Bangladesh#218136,4095.8K rec.——Liza44
PH Philippines#186107,11282K rec.—53KLeah144
GB United Kingdom#304102,77072K rec.—47Leah240
AU Australia#24191,02766K rec.—79Leah239
CA Canada#26050,69731K rec.—40Leah209
EG Egypt—41,5962.3K rec.——Ria22
BR Brazil—23,64917K rec.1 in 9K24KLia152

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • English1.4M76%
  • Swahili84K5%
  • Spanish72K4%
  • 56K3%
  • Chinese28K2%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
English1,371,20876%
Swahili83,8545%
Spanish72,0334%
56,4683%
Chinese27,8552%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Leah is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Swahili given name91K records spelled Leah4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Kenya, United States, Philippines, Tanzania

    Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho

    Also written Léah

  • a separate given name62K records spelled Leah2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy

    Also written Léah

  • Russian given name9.7K records spelled Leah156 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, Croatia, Ukraine, Poland

    Languages: Russian, Croatian, Ukrainian

    Also written Лия, Lea, Лія, Лея, Лиа

  • Indonesian given name9.6K records spelled Leah4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, United Kingdom

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Lęāh, Léah

  • Turkish given name1.7K records spelled Leah6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Türkiye, Philippines

    Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani

    Also written Leàh, Lêâh, Léah

56 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Leah is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • Leah represents the matriarchal foundation of the priesthood and kingship in Israel, symbolizing God's compassion for the unloved and the fulfillment of divine promise through suffering and faithfulness.

    as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database

  • A classic biblical name symbolizing resilience, loyalty, and maternal strength.

    as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database

  • In Irish, Hebrew biblical name; wife of Jacob; possibly from a word meaning “weary”.

    as a nameIrish first names

  • In English, Irish Gaelic; the light of the sun. See Eileen, Elaine, Eleanor, Ellen

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • In English, The elder daughter of Laban, sister to Rachel, and first wife of Jacob.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

02K4K6K8K1900195020006.8K · 2009

Show as table
Leah in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1880–2025
Yearrecords
188054
188152
188256
188365
188479
188585
188683
188783
1888118
1889134
1890162
1891144
1892163
1893167
1894182
1895203
1896169
1897147
1898185
1899149
1900166
1901184
1902171
1903175
1904149
1905168
1906164
1907200
1908194
1909176
1910207
1911202
1912302
1913370
1914457
1915552
1916514
1917534
1918588
1919527
1920523
1921514
1922485
1923487
1924505
1925444
1926436
1927345
1928405
1929309
1930326
1931319
1932296
1933338
1934395
1935362
1936346
1937408
1938376
1939373
1940365
1941351
1942330
1943308
1944306
1945285
1946324
1947388
1948387
1949451
1950442
1951479
1952496
1953580
1954558
1955592
1956668
1957740
1958667
1959738
1960773
1961806
1962977
19631,299
19641,422
19651,385
19661,378
19671,598
19681,616
19691,489
19701,672
19711,690
19721,594
19731,587
19741,844
19752,117
19762,270
19772,586
19782,710
19793,075
19803,642
19813,808
19823,762
19833,484
19843,535
19853,572
19863,457
19873,454
19883,558
19893,784
19903,924
19913,816
19923,431
19933,414
19943,205
19953,274
19963,326
19973,203
19983,218
19993,288
20003,399
20013,521
20023,604
20033,925
20044,744
20054,601
20064,657
20074,555
20085,634
20096,790
20106,545
20116,400
20125,781
20135,618
20145,610
20155,636
20165,434
20175,202
20185,038
20194,780
20204,530
20214,474
20224,196
20233,976
20243,988
20253,880

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

1940196019802000Delta Burke, b. 1956Leah Ayres, b. 1957Leah Remini, b. 1970Rashida Jones, b. 1976Leah Pipes, b. 1983Leah Gibson, b. 1985Rachel Bloom, b. 1987Carmella, b. 1987Leah Lewis, b. 1996Leah Williamson, b. 1997
  • Delta Burkeb. 1956USnot in their usual nameactress
  • Leah Ayresb. 1957USAmerican actress
  • Leah Reminib. 1970USAmerican actress (born 1970)
  • Rashida Jonesb. 1976USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, writer, and producer (born 1976)
  • Leah Pipesb. 1983USAmerican actress (born 1988)
  • Leah Gibsonb. 1985CACanadian actress
  • Rachel Bloomb. 1987USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, singer, and producer
  • Carmellab. 1987USnot in their usual nameAmerican professional wrestler, dancer and model
  • Leah Lewisb. 1996CNAmerican actress (born 1996)
  • Leah Williamsonb. 1997GBEnglish footballer (born 1997)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 110 sources across 58 countries.

Official registers attesting Leah
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020201K#275
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—16K#288
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—6K#552
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)20255.2K—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20253.9K—
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)20203.2K—
EC EcuadorINEC — civil registry names20241.9K#638
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)20241.1K#1,403
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017)—962#2,127
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—895#413
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—826#3,266
AT AustriaStatistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024)2024801#192

Reference works 5

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,202 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Leah?
We estimate roughly 499 thousand people bear Leah (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.
In which country does Leah have the most bearers?
Leah is most frequently recorded in Israel, where it is most often spelled לאה.
Where is Leah most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Leah is densest in Georgia — about 1 in 169 people — even though Israel holds more of our records for it.
How common is Leah compared with other names?
In Israel, Leah is the 18th most common given name of 97,862 given names recorded there.
Is Leah a male or female name?
Leah is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Leah mean?
Recorded meaning: The name is commonly associated with the Hebrew root 'la'ah' meaning 'weary' or 'tired', though some scholars suggest a connection to an Akkadian cognate meaning 'wild cow'.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/leah

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Leah” — the 18th most common given name in Israel. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Leah parses inside a full name →