Leah (given name)

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Leah is a feminine given name of Hebrew origin. Its meaning is often deciphered as "delicate" or "weary". The name can be traced back to the Biblical matriarch Leah, one of the two wives of Jacob.^[1] This name may derive from Hebrew: לֵאָה, romanized: lē’ah, presumably cognate with Akkadian 𒀖 littu, meaning 'wild cow', from Proto-Semitic *layʾ-at- ~ laʾay-at- 'cow'.^{[citation needed]}

In some instances, the name "Leah" may refer to the Old English word léah which means "meadow" or "piece of ground" ^[2]. The word is a common component in Anglo-Saxon place-names and can denote forests, clearings and fields^[3].

Variants[edit]

Lea – Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Norwegian, Polish, Serbian, Slovene, Swedish, Yoruba, Hawaiian
Léa – French
לאה – Hebrew
Liya – Amharic, Turkish
Leah – English
Leia – Koine Greek, Portuguese
Lėja – Lithuanian
Lia – Ecclesiastical Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, German, Catalan
Lía – Galician
Liadh – Irish
Lìyǎ – Chinese
Liah
Lya
Λεία (Lia) – Greek
Liia – Estonian
Lija – Latvian

Royalty[edit]

Leah Isadora Behn, the second daughter of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway

Public figures[edit]

Leah Manning (1886–1977), British activist and politician
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[edit]

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 Cherniak (born 1956), Canadian playwright and theatre director
Leah Clark (born 1979), American voice actress affiliated with Funimation
Leah Dizon (born 1986), American-born Japanese model and singer
Leah Falland (born 1992), American steeplechase runner
Leah Fortune (born 1990), Brazilian-American football (soccer) player
Leah Goldberg (1911–1970), Israeli writer
Leah Goldstein (born 1969), Canadian-born Israeli professional road racing cyclist, former World Bantamweight Kickboxing Champion, and Israel's Duathlon champion
Leah Haywood (born 1976), Australian singer
Leah Horowitz (runner) (1933–1956), Israeli Olympic hurdler
Leah Jeffries (born 2009), American actress
Leah Kaslar (born 1985), Australian rules footballer
Leah Krinsky, American comedy writer
Leah Laiman (born 1946), American writer
Leah McHenry (born 1984), Canadian musician and music educator
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, American actress
Leah Rhodes (1902–1986), American costume designer
Leah Song, American musician and activist
Leah Van Dale (born 1987), American professional wrestler better known as Carmella
Leah Williamson (born 1997), English footballer

Others[edit]

Leah Berman (born 1976), American mathematician
Leah Carola Czollek (born 1954), German author, mediator and trainer.
Leah Chase (1923–2019), American chef
Leah Findlater, Canadian and American computer scientist
Leah Horowitz (1680–1755), Polish scholar and writer
Leah Mosher, pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force

Fictional characters[edit]

Leah, in the British radio series The Space Gypsy Adventures
Leah, in the American animated TV series Shimmer and Shine
Leah, in the 2018 TV series The Crossing
Leah, in the American TV series The Walking Dead
Leah, in the 2018 movie Love, Simon
Leah Murphy, in the American medical drama TV series Grey's Anatomy
Leye (Ashkenazic pronunciation), in the play The Dybbuk
Queen Leah, mother of Princess Aurora in Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty
Leah Brahms, in the TV 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 TV series Home and Away
Leah Rose, in the Left Behind novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins
Leah Kazuno, one of the two members of Saint Snow
Leah Rilke, in the TV series The Wilds
Leah the Fruit Bat, a bat who appeared as a guest in the first season of Jim Henson's Animal Show
Leah Banning, in the Has Fallen film series
Leah Vaughn, in The Perfect Guy

This page or section lists people that share the same given name.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.

References[edit]

^ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). Oxford Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. pp. 165, 166. ISBN 0-19-861060-2.
^ Tichy, Martin Rocek, Ondrej. "Bosworth-Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online". Bosworth-Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online. Retrieved 2024-07-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Stewart, George R. (1962-03-01). "Leah, Woods, and Deforestation as an Influence on Place". Names. 10 (1): 11–20. doi:10.1179/nam.1962.10.1.11. ISSN 1756-2279.

[1] Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). Oxford Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. pp. 165, 166. ISBN 0-19-861060-2.

[2] Tichy, Martin Rocek, Ondrej. "Bosworth-Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online". Bosworth-Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online. Retrieved 2024-07-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[3] Stewart, George R. (1962-03-01). "Leah, Woods, and Deforestation as an Influence on Place". Names. 10 (1): 11–20. doi:10.1179/nam.1962.10.1.11. ISSN 1756-2279.

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