Leah (given name)
Leah is a feminine given name of Hebrew origin. This name is believed to derive from (Hebrew: לָאָה, romanized: la’ah, lit. 'weary') or is cognate with Akkadian 𒀖 littu, meaning "wild cow", from Proto-Semitic *layʾ-at- ~ laʾay-at- "cow". The name can be traced back to the Biblical matriarch, Leah, one of the two wives of Jacob, who is described as having weary eyes.
In the Celtic, Irish and Gaelic language the name Leah means “the light of the sun”, but it also deprives from the Irish word “Ó Laochdha” meaning heroic. Variants include:
- Lea – Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Slovene, Swedish, Polish, Yoruba
- Léa – French
- Leah – English, Hebrew
- Leia – Koine Greek
- Lėja – Lithuanian
- Lia – Ecclesiastical Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian
- Lía – Galician
- Lya
- Λεία (Lia) – Greek
- Liia – Estonian
- Lija – Latvian
- Lea - Serbian
Since 1880, the name Leah has never been outside of the top 500 baby girl name in the US. Its peak usage in the US was reached in 2010 when the name was ranked as the 24th most popular name for baby girls. Elsewhere it became a more popular name within the late 1990s and early 2000s. In the UK it was a top 50 name from 1996 until 2011, in Ireland it was a top 25 name from 2002 until 2014, and in Norway it was a top 100 name from 2003 through 2014. In 2014 the name ranked at 35th most popular in the US, 78th most popular in the UK, 27th most popular in Ireland, and 19th most popular in Norway.[1]
Royalty
- Leah Isadora Behn, the second daughter of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway
Public figures
- Leah Manning (1886–1977), British activist and politician
- Leah Mosher, pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force
- Leah Rabin (1928–2000), wife of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
- Leah Rosenthal (1879 - 1930), Australian nurse who served in World War I
- Leah Ward Sears (born 1955), American judge
Arts and sports
- Leah Applebaum, American voice actress
- Leah Ayres (born 1957), American actress
- Leah Baird (1883–1971), American actress
- Leah Betts (1977–1995), British water intoxication / ecstasy victim
- Leah Bracknell (1964–2019), British actress
- Leah Cairns (born 1974), Canadian actress
- Leah Chase (1923–2019), American chef
- Leah Clark, (born 1979), American voice actress affiliated with Funimation
- Leah Dizon (born 1986), American-born Japanese model and singer
- Leah Fortune (born 1990), Brazilian-American football (soccer) player
- Leah Goldberg (1911–1970), Israeli writer
- Leah Goldstein (born 1969), Israeli cyclist
- Lea Gottlieb (born 1918), Israeli fashion designer
- Leah Haywood (born 1976), Australian singer
- Leah Horowitz (born 1933), Israeli Olympic hurdler
- Leah Kaslar (born 1985), Australian rules footballer
- Leah Krinsky, American comedy writer
- Leah Laiman (born 1946), American writer
- Leah Miller (born 1981), Canadian actress
- Leah Moore (born 1978), British comic book writer
- Leah Neuberger (1915–1993), American table tennis player
- Leah Pells (born 1964), Canadian track and field athlete
- Leah Pinsent (born 1968), Canadian actress
- Leah Pipes (born 1988), American actress
- Leah Purcell (born 1970), Australian actress
- Leah Remini (born 1970), American actress
- Leah Rhodes (1902–1986), American costume designer
- Léa Seydoux, (born 1985), French actress
- Leah Song, American musician and activist
- Leah Van Dale (born 1987), American professional wrestler better known as Carmella
- Leah Williamson (born 1997), English footballer
- Leah Welstead (born 1996) Australian hockey player
Science and technology
- Leah Berman (born 1976), American mathematician
- Leah Findlater, Canadian and American computer scientist
Fictional characters
- Leah, in the radio series The Space Gypsy Adventures
- Leah, in the animated television series Shimmer and Shine
- Leye (ashkenazic pronunciation), in the play The Dybbuk
- Leia Organa, from the Star Wars Saga
- Leah Brahms, in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Leah Clearwater, in the Twilight novels by Stephenie Meyer
- Leah Estrogen, in the 2001 film Osmosis Jones
- Leah Mordecai, title character of the 1856 novel by Belle K. Abbott
- Leah Patterson-Baker, in the Australian television series Home and Away
- Leah Rose, in the Left Behind novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins
References
- "Name Leah - Meaning, origin etc. - Girl Names - Baby Name Leah". The Name Meaning. 2013-05-08. Retrieved 2018-01-17.