180+ Arabic Girl Names
Updated Sun Sep 29 2024
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Arabic girl names are used widely around the world, both by parents with Arabic roots and by non-Arabs. Names such as Aaliyah and Layla have become popular in many Western countries.
Layla is the top Arabic name for girls in the US. Along with Layla, Arabic girl names in the US Top 1000 include Aaliyah, Kayla, Lila, Lyla, and Leila, Aisha, Imani, Mariam, and Zara.
Arabic names that are popular in the UK for baby girls include Layla, Zara, Maryam, Lyla, and Aisha, all now in the Top 100 in England and Wales. Unique Arabic names for girls we see on the horizon include Aziza, Inaya, and Kalila, among many others.
One of the top girl names in Arabic-speaking countries is Zainab or Zeynep, which has many spelling variations and is a tree name, meaning beauty or grace. Other popular Arabic girl names in the Arabic world include Elif, Azra, and Abrar.
Whether you're interested in Arabic names because of your family origins or an interest in this rich and historic culture, this is our complete complement of Arabic names for baby girls, organized by their current popularity on Nameberry.
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- Lila
Origin:
Arabic, SanskritMeaning:
"night; play"Description:
Lila is one of the girl names with a double l sound — Lila, Lola, Layla, Leila, Lily et al — that have caught on in a major way., Delicate yet dynamic, Lila has a slightly international flair.
- Zara
Origin:
Hebrew and ArabicMeaning:
"blooming flower; God remembers"Description:
Zara has multiple origins, but most notably is a variation of Zahrah, a name derived from the Arabic zahrah, meaning "blooming flower." Zara can also be a diminutive of the Bulgarian name Zaharina, a feminine form of the Hebrew Zechariah. Today, Zara is heavily associated with the Spanish fast-fashion empire of the same name.
- Layla
Origin:
Variation of Leila, ArabicMeaning:
"night"Description:
A lovely musical name (remember the old Eric Clapton-Derek & the Dominos song?), Layla's seen a significant surge in popularity, partly partly all names with a double L are stylish, and partly because all the forms of the name push it into the Top 15 for girls.
- Lyla
Origin:
Spelling variation of Lila, ArabicMeaning:
"night"Description:
The Lyla spelling variation has now superseded the original Lila — the former remains on the rise while the latter is consistently falling in popularity.
- Lilah
Origin:
Variation of Lila, Arabic, EnglishMeaning:
"night"Description:
Lilah may be a simple spelling variation of Lila— itself an alternative form of the Arabic Leila — or you might think of it as a shortening of Delilah or an Anglicization of the Hebrew Lilach, which means lilac. Whatever the root, it's a beautiful and stylish name. The final h adds balance or creates needless complications, depending on your viewpoint.
- Lulu
Origin:
Diminutive of Louise or Lucy, or ArabicMeaning:
"pearl"Description:
Lula has a firecracker personality, a singing and dancing extrovert. Interesting that Lulu was a Top 100 name when the Social Security list was born in 1880, but it's been sliding ever since and has not been in the Top 1000 for decades. Modern parents in love with Lulu might well reverse that trend.
- Nyla
Origin:
Arabic, Sanskrit, Irish, modern inventionMeaning:
"winner, one who achieves; hero; cloud; wind, air; dark blue"Description:
Bright, spirited, and playful, Nyla shares sounds with the popular Isla, Lila, Layla, and Delilah, making it feel fresh and in style. A name with a number of possible origins, it made a brief, anomalous appearance on the US charts in 1941, before disappearing again for the next 60 years. It has been back in the US Top 1000 since 2001, and is currently on the rise, given to around 1230 girls each year.
- Kayla
Origin:
HebrewMeaning:
"crown, wreath; fortress; who is like God?"Description:
Kayla is a modern invented name that emerged in the late 1950s. It may have been inspired by the similar sounding Michaela, though it could equally have come about as a combination of the then popular name popular name Kay and the familiar -la suffix.
- Aaliyah
Origin:
Variation of Aliya, ArabicMeaning:
"heavens, highborn, exalted"Description:
Both powerful and pretty, with a melodic sound, Aaliyah joins Layla, Lila, Zara, and Aisha as a name of Arabic origin that is also popular in the English-speaking world.
- Zora
Origin:
Serbo-CroatianMeaning:
"dawn"Description:
Zora is a meaningful literary heroine name honoring Zora Neale Hurston, an important black writer and leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
- Yara
Origin:
Arabic, Persian, Brazilian, HebrewMeaning:
"friend, helper; strength; water nymph; honeycomb"Description:
The multicultural Yara is a sweet but substantial choice that could make a more unusual take on Sara and also work in multiple languages. Popular in Portugal, The Netherlands, and Switzerland, familiar in the UK and France, it entered the US Top 1000 in 2017 and has been climbing the charts ever since.
- Sena
Origin:
Korean; Hindi; Turkish; Arabic; EweMeaning:
"this world's beauty or grace; army; to praise; bringing heaven to earth"Description:
Sena is one of those names that is as obscure in the Western World as it is simple and straightforward. Sena exists as a name in a range of languages and cultures and may be pronounced like Senna (with a soft e) or Sienna.
- Leila
Origin:
ArabicMeaning:
"night"Description:
Leila was popularized in the West by the poet Byron, who used it in his poem Don Juan for a ten-year-old Turkish girl. Leila also appears as a fairy in the Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera Iolanthe.
- Laila
Origin:
Spelling variation of Layla or Sami variation of Helga, Arabic or FinnishMeaning:
"night; holy"Description:
Beguiling and lovely, Laila is one of the lilting variations of Leila and Layla. It's the name of the former-boxer daughter of Muhammad Ali and of actor Shawn Wayans. In Finland, the Sami people use this in place of the Scandinavian name Helga.
- Farrah
Origin:
ArabicMeaning:
"happiness"Description:
Back in the late '70s, Farrah Fawcett's name was as frequently copied as her hairstyle and even made the Top 200 in 1977! Like any trend, however, it promptly fell back out of style, only to re-emerge in the 2010s, in honor of the star's death and possibly thanks to TV personality, Farrah Abraham of Teen Mom too.
- Zariah
Origin:
Arabic, Hebrew, RussianMeaning:
"flower, God has helped, dawn"Description:
Zariah has three possible origins: the Arabic Zahrah which means ‘flower’, the Hebrew name Azariah, meaning ‘God has helped’, or the Russian word Zaria which means ‘sunrise/dawn’. Either way, it's a strong and striking name with a range of lovely meanings.
- Alia
Origin:
Arabic feminine form of AliMeaning:
"supreme, exalted"Description:
Alia is the most classic and feminine form of Ali, one of the 99 attributes of Allah within Islam. Meaning "supreme, exalted, high, sublime", it is pretty, powerful and spirited.
- Aida
Origin:
Arabic; Italian; LithuanianMeaning:
"returning visitor; happy; echo"Description:
Aida is a melodic name largely associated with the title character of the 1871 Verdi opera, an enslaved Ethiopian princess who dies to save her people. In the past, her name was rarely heard outside the Latino community, but in the current time of love for all A-starting girls' names, this could very well change.
- Inaya
Origin:
Arabic, Bengali and UrduMeaning:
"care, concern"Description:
Inaya is a soft and expressive name that derives from the Arabic word "inayah", meaning "care, concern, help". It is an indirect Qur'anic name, and the strictly feminine form of the unisex Inayat.
- Maja
Origin:
German, Slovene, and Scandinavian form of Maya; also, ArabicMeaning:
"splendid"Description:
Whether you pronounce it my-a, ma-zha or ma-ha, Maja is an intriguing choice. Sometimes associated with Goya's famous painting "The Naked Maja." As a cognate of Maya, it's a Top 10 name in Slovenia and Sweden and is also popular in Germany and Norway.
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