Leela comes from the Sanskrit word lila, which means "divine play" or "play" and describes the universe as the joyful game of the gods in Hindu thought. English speakers also use it as a phonetic spelling of Leila, the Arabic name for "night", and the cartoon captain Turanga Leela in Futurama made it familiar to a wider audience. In the United States Leela rose from number 3246 in 2000 to a peak of number 1088 in 2013 and ranks number 1282 in 2025.