100+ Names That Mean Night for Girls and Boys (2026)

This list has more than 100 names that mean night, sorted into girl, boy and unisex sections, then names that mean evening, dusk or darkness, and a last group of night deities. Each entry gives the origin language and the accepted meaning, and where the etymology is disputed the entry says so.

How to use this list

Night names come in three shades. A few are the plain word for night, like Layla, Nox, Rajani and Yoru. Others mean evening or dusk, a softer choice that reads well on a birth certificate: Vesper, Hesper, Sandhya. The last group means dark or black, which tends to suit characters more than babies. The sections below keep them apart. Lilith is the most famous name on night lists with the weakest claim, and its entry says why.

If none of these fit, the Baby Name Generator can take a meaning like "night" and a style you like and suggest names with the origin attached. For other themes, start with the hub of more names by meaning.

Girl names that mean night

The literal choices for girls are Layla, Leila, Nyx, Nisha, Rajani, Yoru and Notte. Layla is by far the most used.

Arabic, Hebrew and Persian

Layla — Arabic, “night”; famous from the poem Layla and Majnun
Leila — Persian spelling of Layla, “night”
Leyla — Turkish spelling of Layla, “night”
Lailah — Hebrew, the angel of conception in Jewish legend, from laylah, “night”
Laila — variant of Layla, “night”
Lilith — Hebrew, a night demon; linked by folk etymology to layil, “night”, but likely from Akkadian lilītu, “wind spirit”, so debated
Shabnam — Persian, “dew”, the water of the night
Shab — Persian, “night”; rare as a name
Shabnur — Persian, “light of the night”
Sahar — Arabic, “dawn, the hour before daybreak”
Samira — Arabic, “companion in evening talk”
Samar — Arabic, “evening conversation”

Sanskrit and South Asian

Nisha — Sanskrit, “night”
Rajani — Sanskrit, “night”
Ratri — Sanskrit, “night”, also the Vedic night goddess
Yamini — Sanskrit, “night”
Nishita — Sanskrit, “midnight”
Sharvari — Sanskrit, “night”
Vibhavari — Sanskrit, “starry night”
Tamasi — Sanskrit, “dark night”
Kshanada — Sanskrit, “night”
Sandhya — Sanskrit, “twilight”

Greek, Latin and Romance

Nyx — Greek, the goddess of night
Nox — Latin, “night”
Noctua — Latin, “little owl”, the night bird
Notte — Italian, “night”
Noche — Spanish, “night”
Nuit — French, “night”
Vespera — Latin, “evening”
Hespera — Greek, “evening”
Nocturna — Latin, “of the night”
Sera — Italian, “evening”
Isha — Arabic ‘ishā’, the night prayer and “evening”; in Sanskrit a separate name meaning “lord”
Erebea — modern feminine of Erebus, “darkness”

Japanese, Chinese and Korean

Yoru — Japanese 夜, “night”
Yoruko — Japanese 夜子, “child of the night”
Sayo — Japanese 小夜, “night”; poetic
Sayoko — Japanese 小夜子, “child of the night”
Yuuko — Japanese 夕子, “evening child”; depends on the kanji
Yuzuki — Japanese 夕月, “evening moon”
Ye — Chinese 夜, “night”; rare as a name
Bam — Korean 밤, “night”; also “chestnut”

Slavic, Norse and Celtic

Noć — Croatian and Serbian, “night”; rare
Nótt — Old Norse, “night”, the night giantess
Ciara — Irish, “dark-haired”
Keira — anglicised Ciara, “dark”
Dubheasa — Irish, “dark beauty”

Boy names that mean night

Erebus — Greek, the primordial god of darkness
Noctis — Latin, “of the night”; modern, popularised by Final Fantasy XV
Nyktimos — Greek, “of the night”, a mythical king of Arcadia
Nishant — Sanskrit, “end of night, dawn”
Rajnikant — Sanskrit, “lord of the night”, the moon
Nishakar — Sanskrit, “maker of night”, the moon
Nishith — Sanskrit, “midnight”
Yamir — Sanskrit, “moon”, lord of the night
Tamas — Sanskrit, “darkness”; also a Hungarian form of Thomas
Layl — Arabic, “night”; rare as a name
Laylan — modern masculine of Layla
Samir — Arabic, “companion in evening talk”
Yoruhiko — Japanese 夜彦, “night prince”
Yuugure — Japanese 夕暮れ, “dusk”; rare
Kuro — Japanese 黒, “black”
Dubhghall — Irish, “dark stranger”, the source of Dougal
Dougal — Scottish, “dark stranger”
Duff — Scottish Dubh, “dark”
Kieran — Irish Ciarán, “little dark one”
Ciarán — Irish, “little dark one”
Donovan — Irish, “dark chieftain”
Duncan — Scottish, “dark warrior”
Dolan — Irish, “dark, black-haired”
Blake — Old English blæc, “dark”, or blāc, “pale”; debated
Darcy — Norman, from Arcy; the “dark” gloss is folk etymology
Mavros — Greek, “black”
Nero — Latin, a Roman family name meaning “strong”; its Italian reading “black” is later
Moreno — Spanish, “dark-skinned, dark-haired”
Kala — Sanskrit, “black, time”; also a name of Shiva
Krishna — Sanskrit, “black, dark”
Shyam — Sanskrit, “dark”, a name of Krishna

Unisex names that mean night

Nos — Welsh, “night”; rare as a name
Oíche — Irish, “night”; rare as a name
Gece — Turkish, “night”; rare as a name
Pō — Hawaiian, “night, darkness”, the realm before creation
Vesper — Latin, “evening”, the evening star
Hesper — Greek, “evening”
Twila — English, from twilight; modern
Dusk — English, “dusk”
Midnight — English, “midnight”
Raven — English, the night-black bird
Onyx — Greek, a black gemstone
Sable — French, “black”
Ebony — English, the black wood

Night gods, goddesses and spirits

Hecate — Greek goddess of crossroads, torches and night
Selene — Greek goddess of the moon
Mani — Norse god of the moon
Tsukuyomi — Japanese god of the moon and night
Coyolxauhqui — Aztec moon goddess
Tezcatlipoca — Aztec god of the night sky, “smoking mirror”
Kek — Egyptian god of darkness
Kauket — Egyptian goddess of darkness, Kek’s consort
Hine-nui-te-pō — Maori goddess of night and death
Nocturnus — Roman god of the night, rarely attested
Morpheus — Greek god of dreams
Hypnos — Greek god of sleep, son of Nyx

Frequently asked questions

What girl names mean night?

Layla, Leila and Leyla (Arabic, Persian and Turkish, “night”) are the most used by far. Nisha, Rajani, Yamini and Ratri are the Sanskrit choices, Yoru and Sayo are Japanese, and Nyx and Nox come from Greek and Latin mythology.

What boy names mean night?

Nox, Erebus, Nishith (“midnight”) and Yoruhiko (“night prince”) are the literal ones. Most boy names on night lists actually mean dark: Kieran, Duncan, Donovan, Dougal and Krishna.

Does Lilith mean night?

Not reliably. Lilith is a night demon in Jewish folklore, and the name was long linked to the Hebrew word for night. Most scholars now trace it to the Akkadian lilītu, a wind or storm spirit, so the night meaning is folk etymology.

What name means child of the night?

Yoruko and Sayoko in Japanese both mean “child of the night”. Hypnos and Thanatos are the sons of Nyx in Greek myth, and their names are on our list of names that mean death.

What names go with night?

Pair night with names that mean moon and names that mean star for a night-sky set, or with names that mean shadow for a darker one.