Leilani · Daily fortune

Leilani is a Hawaiian name meaning "heavenly flowers" or "royal child", from lei ("flowers, lei, child") and lani ("heaven, sky, royal, majesty"). Behind the Name records that it was popularised outside Hawaii by Bing Crosby's song Sweet Leilani (1937), featured in the film Waikiki Wedding; Wikipedia dates the name's first appearance in the American top 1,000 to that same year. It has stayed in wide use since, and in 2025 it ranked #60 for girls in the United States.

Behind the Name gives Leilani as a compound of two Hawaiian words: lei, "flowers, lei, child", and lani, "heaven, sky, royal, majesty" — hence the two standard renderings, "heavenly flowers" and "royal child". Wikipedia describes the same elements: "The Hawaiian word lei refers to flowers and lani to the sky or heavens, with an association to royalty", and translates the whole as "heavenly garland of flowers" or "royal child". The two sources agree; the double meaning comes from the breadth of the two elements, not from competing derivations.

Leilani is a Hawaiian name that entered mainland American use through popular song. Behind the Name attributes its spread outside Hawaii to Bing Crosby's Sweet Leilani (1937), featured in the movie Waikiki Wedding; Wikipedia records that 1937 is also the year the name first entered the top 1,000 girls' names in the United States, which makes the connection unusually legible in the data. Wikipedia adds that the name has ranked among the 500 most popular American girls' names since 2001, that it reached #59 nationally in 2022, that phonetic respellings are also widely used, and that in that year it was among the five most popular names for Black newborn girls in Virginia. Behind the Name lists a Tahitian counterpart, Heirani.

Leilani ranked #60 for girls in the United States in 2025 (Social Security Administration). Wikipedia traces a steady climb rather than a spike: in the top 1,000 since 1937, among the 500 most popular since 2001, and at #59 nationally in 2022 — a position essentially unchanged in the 2025 file.

Behind the Name gives one pronunciation, the Hawaiian /lej.ˈla.ni/. The name is used in English with the same shape, roughly lay-LAH-nee; the English pronunciation is not separately listed by Behind the Name and the other entries below were not verified in this pass.

Leilani is long, vowel-rich and evenly stressed, which gives it a flowing sound that stands out among the clipped two-syllable names around it in the charts. It is a genuine Hawaiian name rather than an invented one, and parents outside Hawaii should know that it carries a specific cultural home — a reason some choose it and a reason others think twice. It shortens awkwardly, so it tends to be used in full.

Bearers and works named in the sources consulted for this profile.

Names that share Leilani's Hawaiian or Pacific roots, its flowing sound, or its nature meaning.