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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Girl's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

LeahIn Hebrew: לאה · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: לֵאָהRomanization: Le'a

Leah (Hebrew: לאה) is a girl's name of biblical origin. 28,052 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 542 girls and ranked #31. Its peak year was 1950, with 641 babies.

People in Israel
28,052
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
542
rank #31
Peak year
1950
641 babies
USA, 2025
3,880
rank #58

Writing and saying Leah

In Hebrew letters the name is לאה, read right to left. Leah is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "Le'a" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • Leah
  • a female given name, Leah
From Proto-Semitic *layʾ-at- ~ laʾay-at- (“cow”), possibly from verbal root *l-ʾ-y (“to be strong, mighty”). Cognate with Akkadian 𒀖 (lītum, “cow”) and Arabic لَآة (laʔāh, “wild cow”).

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Leah by year: Israel and abroad

How many girls out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Leah: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Leah in English-speaking countries

Leah in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States20253,880#582009 (6,790)
United Kingdom2025320#1772004 (2,544)
England and Wales2025273#1832004 (2,160)
Scotland202533#1352005 (276)
Northern Ireland202514#1402005 (163)
Ireland202588#552006 (444)
British Columbia202339#611982 (105)
Alberta202545#752015 (89)
Quebec202536#1552011 (83)
New South Wales202579#891983 (168)

Counts for girls. The Hebrew page for Leah has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Leah

How do you write Leah in Hebrew?

Leah is written לאה in Hebrew (with vowel points: לֵאָה). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "Le'a".

How many people in Israel are named Leah?

28,052 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name לאה: 28,047 women and 5 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Leah a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a girl's name: 100.0% of the people named לאה are women.

What does the name Leah mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "Leah" Etymology: From Proto-Semitic *layʾ-at- ~ laʾay-at- (“cow”), possibly from verbal root *l-ʾ-y (“to be strong, mighty”). Cognate with Akkadian 𒀖 (lītum, “cow”) and Arabic لَآة (laʔāh, “wild cow”).

Is Leah used outside Israel?

The name Leah appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 3,880 girls were given it in 2025 (#58), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 320 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.