Leilani
Meaning of Leilani
Leilani is a Hawaiian name built from two elements: lei, a garland or wreath of flowers, and lani, meaning sky or heaven, a word that also carries the sense of royalty or high rank. Name dictionaries generally gloss the whole as “heavenly child” or “child of heaven.” The name is traditional in Hawaii rather than a modern coinage. It is pronounced lay-LAH-nee, with the stress on the middle syllable, and that pronunciation holds in both American and British use.
Its best-known bearer is probably Leilani Münter, the American former stock car racing driver and environmental activist. Leilani Mitchell, who plays basketball for the Australian national team and is the first player to win the WNBA Most Improved Player Award twice, is another familiar namesake.
Leilani was rare in the United States for most of the twentieth century, given to only a few dozen girls a year into the 1950s. It began a long climb in the 1990s and has since become genuinely common. In 1996, 209 girls received the name and it ranked 931st. By 2017 it had reached 129th, and in 2022 it stood at 59th with 3,868 births, its highest annual count so far. In 2025 it ranked 60th, with 3,792 girls named Leilani, so the name has settled just outside the American top fifty after three decades of steady growth.
Pronunciation
Hawaiian
- Pronunced as lay-LAH-nee (/leɪ.ˈlɑ.ni/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Leilani
| Leilani Münter - Leilani Maaja Munter is an American former professional stock car racing driver and environmental activist who last competed in the ARCA Menards Series after earlier driving in Firestone Indy Lights, the development league for IndyCar. |
| Leilani Muir was the first to win a wrongful sterilization suit against Alberta, spurring more cases and spotlighting eugenics, institutionalization, disability rights, and self advocacy. |
| Leilani Mitchell is an American and Australian basketball player for the Southside Flyers and the Australian national team, drafted 25th by the Phoenix Mercury in 2008, and in 2019 became the first to win the WNBA Most Improved Player Award twice. |
| An English former Miss Great Britain and Page 3 model, Leilani Dowding later appeared on reality TV and became a conservative commentator and anti mRNA vaccine campaigner. |
| Leilani Perese is a New Zealand rugby union player who debuted for the Black Ferns in 2018 and plays for Hurricanes Poua and Counties Manukau. |
| Leilani McGonagle is a Costa Rican professional surfer who competes in the World Surf League, and her brother Noe Mar McGonagle is also a professional surfer. |
| Leilani Read was a New Zealand and Samoan netball international who played nine times for New Zealand, suffered from a rare blood disorder, and died at 25 from a brain haemorrhage. |
