laila

This name derives from the Arabic tri-consonantal root: “l-y-l (lamedh-yodh-lamedh)”. The name Layla meaning “night, born at night, dark-haired beauty, dark beauty”, and is linked to the Hebrew name transliterated “laylah”. This is an internationally-used Arabic feminine given name originating in the Semitic languages. The name has long been used in Arab and Persian folklore, poetry, and literature. For example, the 7th-century Arab poet Qays addressed romantic poems to a woman called Layla. The story of “Qays and Layla” or Layla and Majnun became a popular romance in the medieval Arab World and Persia, and use of the name spread accordingly; it gained popularity further afield in the Muslim World, among the Turkic peoples and in the Balkans and India.