Zuleyka as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Zuleyka

What is the meaning of the name Zuleyka ?

The baby name Zuleyka is a girl name , 3 syllables long and is pronounced zoo-LAY-kah.

Zuleyka is Arabic, Persian, Spanish in Origin.

Zuleyka is a Hispanic spelling of Zuleika, from the Arabic and Persian form Zulaykhā (زليخا/زلیخا), the medieval Islamic name attached to Potiphar's wife. Name dictionaries usually gloss Zulaykhā as fair, brilliant, or lovely, though it functions as a proper name rather than a transparent Arabic root formation. The -ey- in Zuleyka represents the diphthong of Zulaykhā/Zuleika, while final -ka adapts the name to Spanish orthographic habits.

The figure is unnamed in Genesis and the Qur'an, but later Jewish, Islamic, Persian, and Ottoman storytelling identified her as Zulaykhā, especially in romances of Yusuf and Zulaikha such as Jami's fifteenth-century Persian poem. European Zuleika entered literary use in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and Spanish-speaking communities developed spellings including Zuleica and Zuleyka. In the United States, Zuleyka appears in SSA data from 2000, with added visibility after Puerto Rican Miss Universe 2006 Zuleyka Rivera.