Last updated: March 2026

Character Name

Layla

Meaning — From the Arabic root "l-y-l" meaning night, Layla conveys the mystery, beauty, and intoxication of darkness. It is immortalized in the ancient Arabic tale of Qays and Layla, one of the most celebrated love stories in Arabic and Persian literary tradition, in which Layla represents an unattainable ideal of beauty and longing.·Arabic origin·Female·LAY-lah

Layla Layla is a name saturated with romantic longing, nocturnal mystery, and an almost mythic beauty. Characters named Layla often occupy the role of the beloved — the source of another's passion — but the best portrayals give Layla her own interiority: a woman who knows her power and navigates it with complex, layered emotion.

Best genres for Layla

RomanceHistorical FictionLiterary FictionPoetryMythology

Famous characters named Layla

Layla

Layla and Majnun Nizami Ganjavi

The unattainable beloved whose name drives the poet Qays to madness (majnun), becoming in Sufi interpretation a symbol of the soul's longing for the divine.


Variations & nicknames

LaylaLeilaLailaLyla

Pairs well with

Layla Al-HassanLayla MansourLayla KhalilLayla NasserLayla RashidLayla Aziz

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Related names


More Arabic names

Reem

From the Arabic "rīm" (also written "raim") meaning a white gazelle or oryx — the most graceful of desert animals and a classic symbol of feminine beauty in Arabic poetry. The gazelle's eyes (عيون الغزال, uyun al-ghazal) are the supreme poetic compliment for a woman's beauty in the Arabic lyric tradition.

Aisha

From the Arabic root "ʿ-y-sh" meaning to live or to be alive, Aisha signifies "she who lives" or "living, prosperous". Aisha bint Abi Bakr was the beloved wife of the Prophet Muhammad and a major transmitter of his teachings (hadith), becoming one of the most influential women in early Islamic history.

Laila

A variant spelling of Layla/Leila, from the Arabic root "l-y-l" meaning night. Laila captures the same connotations of nocturnal beauty, mystery, and intoxicating longing that have made this name one of the most celebrated in Arabic and Persian literary tradition, through the endlessly retold love story of Laila and Majnun.

Malek

From the Arabic root "m-l-k" meaning to own, to rule, or to possess, Malek means "king" or "master". It shares its root with the Semitic divine title "Molech" and the Hebrew "Melech", and is used across Arabic-speaking, Persian, and North African cultures as a name conveying royal authority.

Amina

From the Arabic root "a-m-n" conveying safety, peace, and trust, Amina means "trustworthy", "faithful", or "safe". It is borne by Amina bint Wahb, the mother of the Prophet Muhammad, and the name has been used throughout the Islamic world as an expression of moral integrity and protection.

Nour

Directly from the Arabic word "nūr" meaning light, radiance, or divine illumination. In Islamic mysticism (Sufism), nūr represents the divine light of God that permeates creation, a concept central to the Quran's famous "Light Verse" (Ayat al-Nur, 24:35), where God is described as the light of the heavens and the earth.


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