Meaning of the nameLeia

Leia is a feminine biblical name, the Portuguese form of Lia, the Old Testament's Leah, whose Hebrew sense the sources explain in different ways.

Meaning

The meaning of Leia is not known for certain. No reliable source documents it, so we give none; below are the origin of the spelling and the official figures.

People (2022): 24,550
Rank in Brazil: #929
Median age: 44 years
2010 Census: 27,401; people

Leia in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Leia, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1980s (5,967 people).

24,439 women 111 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Leia is most common

States with the highest share of people named Leia in the population, in the 2022 Census.

All states

State	People	% of population
São Paulo	5,801	0.013%
Rio de Janeiro	2,842	0.018%
Minas Gerais	2,563	0.013%
Paraná	1,532	0.013%
Bahia	1,485	0.011%
Rio Grande do Sul	1,419	0.013%
Pará	1,220	0.015%
Goiás	1,009	0.014%
Espírito Santo	779	0.020%
Santa Catarina	778	0.010%
Maranhão	775	0.011%
Amazonas	583	0.015%
Ceará	504	0.006%
Mato Grosso	495	0.014%
Mato Grosso do Sul	482	0.018%
Distrito Federal	361	0.013%
Pernambuco	350	0.004%
Piauí	309	0.009%
Rondônia	301	0.019%
Tocantins	220	0.015%
Rio Grande do Norte	144	0.004%
Amapá	128	0.017%
Paraíba	116	0.003%
Alagoas	110	0.004%
Acre	88	0.011%
Sergipe	81	0.004%
Roraima	75	0.012%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Leia

Wiktionary records Leia, in Portuguese, as an alternative form of Lia, the name of Laban's eldest daughter in the Old Testament; Behind the Name gives Leia as the Portuguese form of Leah, and of the Biblical Greek. For the Hebrew לֵאָה (Le'a), Behind the Name suggests as likely a word for 'weary, afflicted' and cites the alternative of Akkadian littu, 'cow'; Wiktionary, in the Latin entry Līa, gives 'cow'. Because the original sense is uncertain, the meaning of the name is not known for certain. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 24,550 people named Leia, with a median age of 44; proportionally, it is most common in Espírito Santo.

Sources

Wiktionary: Leia · en.wiktionary.org · origin
Wiktionary: Lia · en.wiktionary.org · origin
Behind the Name: Leah · behindthename.com · origin

Questions about the name Leia

What does the name Leia mean?

The meaning of Leia is not known for certain: no reliable source documents it. So we give no meaning; the page shows the origin of the spelling and the official figures.

How many people are named Leia in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 24,550 people with the first name Leia, which ranks it number 929 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1980s.

Is Leia a boy's or a girl's name?

Leia is a female name: in the 2022 Census, 24,439 women and 111 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Leia?

Leia is a name of Hebrew origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.

In which Brazilian state is Leia most common?

Proportionally, in Espírito Santo: 0.020% of the state's population is named Leia (779 people), according to the 2022 Census.

More names of Hebrew origin

See all

Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Leia with a source. See the methodology.