Laila

📍 Details

• OriginArabic
• Gender♀ Female
• MeaningVariant of Layla. Night, dark beauty

🔀 Variants & Related Names

⭐ Famous People

• Layla (from Layla and Majnun) — The beloved of the poet Qays (called Majnun, 'the madman') in one of the world's greatest love stories; rooted in 7th-century Arab legend and given immortal form by Nizami Ganjavi in 1188 AD; the name Layla became synonymous across eight centuries of Islamic poetry with the ideal of unattainable, transformative love.
• Laila Ali — American professional boxer (born 1977), daughter of Muhammad Ali; competed from 1999 to 2007 and retired undefeated with a record of 24-0 (21 KOs); held multiple world super middleweight and light heavyweight titles; one of the most successful female boxers in history and a powerful cultural figure in her own right.
• Layla (Derek and the Dominos song) — Rock song written by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon, released in 1970; inspired by Clapton's reading of Nizami's Layla and Majnun and his unrequited love for Pattie Boyd; its signature guitar riff and anguished lyrics have made it one of the most celebrated rock songs ever recorded; ranked among the greatest guitar songs of all time.
• Leila Ahmadi — One of the most common and beloved name bearers across the Persian-speaking world; Leila (the Persian form of Layla) has been among the most popular feminine names in Iran for generations, reflecting how deeply the Layla and Majnun tradition is embedded in Persian cultural identity.
• Nizami Ganjavi — Persian-Azerbaijani poet (c. 1141-1209) whose epic Layla and Majnun (1188 AD) gave the love story its definitive literary form; one of the greatest poets in the Persian language, his Khamsa (Five Treasures) also includes Khosrow and Shirin and the romance of Alexander the Great; his work influenced the entire subsequent tradition of romantic epic in Eastern literature.