Muslim Name · Female · Arabic origin
Layla Name Meaning in Islam
Night, dark beauty, beloved of the classical Arabic poetic tradition.
- Meaning
- Night, dark beauty, beloved of the classical Arabic poetic tradition
- Origin
- Arabic
- Gender
- Girl
- Arabic root
- ل-ي-ل
- Urdu
- لیلیٰ
- Pronunciation
- LAI-la
- Lucky number
- 8
Is Layla an Islamic name? Yes. Layla is an established name in Muslim use, Arabic in origin. Its settled meaning is: Night, dark beauty, beloved of the classical Arabic poetic tradition. It was carried by Layla Khaled. Islamic tradition asks that a name carry a good meaning and claim nothing that belongs to God alone, and this name meets both.
Read the letter-by-letter reading ↓Section 1 · Arabic Root
Where the Name Comes From
ل-ي-ل. From l-y-l, night, same root as layl (night).
Section 2 · Ilm ul Huroof
Read Letter by Letter
Lam authority, Ya reaching, Lam authority, Ya reaching. Authority and reaching, twice over, the night-name.
Section 3 · Synthesis
What This Reading Says About You
Layla weaves earth and water, the elements of steadiness and mercy, patience and feeling. The person is asked to be both root and river, a slow, sheltering presence. Running through the reading is Al-Latif, the Gracious, meaning the bearer is trusted with an unshowy kindness that reaches the tender parts, joined by Al-Qayyum, the Self-Sustaining, carried as a self-holding constancy. A person named Layla holds their people through seasons.
Section 4 · What Families Say
What People Usually Mean by This Name
Night. Layla and Majnun: the most immortal love story of Islamic civilization. Qays ibn al-Mulawwah fell so deeply in love with Layla bint Mahdi that he lost his reason (became majnun, mad) when her family refused their marriage. His poems to her became the template for all of Sufi love poetry, the Sufi tradition read their love as the soul's love for Allah.
Nizami Ganjavi immortalized the story in Persian. Layla is the night, 'And We have made the night a covering' (78:10). The night in Islamic tradition is sacred, the time of tahajjud, the time when Allah descends, the time when the Quran was revealed.
Top global Muslim girls name across every community.
Section 5 · Bearers
Who Has Carried This Name
- Layla Khaled . Palestinian PFLP militant, first woman to hijack an aircraft (1969)
- Layla Murad . Egyptian singer and actress, leading star of 1940s Egyptian musical cinema
How to Pronounce Layla
Is this the spelling you searched?
Same name, different doors: each spelling of Layla belongs to a particular community of speakers.
The letters are the same. But which community spelling carries the story you were born into? Browse all names →
Variants of this name
For Layla, each Latin spelling has its own AsrNaam page, with its own usage and regional context.
Want a different reading? Read another →
Names sharing the ل Lam influence
Like Layla, these names carry Lam (ل) as their leading letter influence.
Frequently Asked Questions
About the name Layla
What does the name Layla mean?
Behind the meaning sits each letter, each with a quality of its own. What does Ilm ul Huroof reveal about Layla? → What does Ilm ul Huroof reveal about names like Layla? →
Is Layla mentioned in the Quran?
The Quran shapes more Islamic names than any other source. See where Layla sits among them. Browse all Quranic names in our collection →
What does Layla mean in Urdu?
Urdu poets and scholars kept the letter qualities readable; that lineage flows under Layla. How do Arabic letters travel into Urdu names? →
Is Layla a good Islamic name?
The letters of Layla, each with its own reading, are laid out above ↑ jump to the letters reading ↑
Is Layla a girl or boy name?
What is the spiritual meaning of Layla in Ilm ul Huroof?
The reading comes from Ilm ul Huroof, the letter-science Ibn Arabi taught. Each letter in Layla carries an ontological role. Read the full introduction to Ilm ul Huroof →
What names go perfectly with Layla as a sibling name?
Above, the related-names section gives the names parents most often pair with Layla. Use letter family and root as your guide.
Is Layla a rare or common Muslim name?
Different communities, different forms of Layla, see them above ↑ or browse all names → See all spelling variants above ↑, or browse all names →
Is your name Layla?
Bring in your parents' names, the field they formed is part of what Layla became in you.
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