Leila

Night enters the room when you write this name. From the Arabic and Persian Layla, traditionally meaning "night" or "dark beauty," Leila belongs to one of the most resonant romantic archetypes in classical literature — the beloved of the poet Qays in the seventh-century tale of Layla and Majnun, retold in rhyming Persian verse by Nizami in the twelfth century and called by many the Romeo and Juliet of the East. Byron borrowed the name for a character in The Giaour; Eric Clapton borrowed the passion if not the spelling.

The Leila variant — with its softer, more French-inflected look — flows alongside Layla on American charts, sharing cultural DNA while maintaining a slightly literary distinction. Both spellings have surged since the 1990s; Leila now holds at rank 268, the quieter sibling of the more common form, often chosen by families who want the sound without the ubiquity.

Two syllables open gently and close even more gently: Lei- settles like a long exhale, -la lands without a hard consonant in sight. Alongside Talia, Lena, or Lola, Leila reads as the romantic of the group. She keeps a journal, can quote the poem the name comes from, and has an opinion about every translation of it.