Leesa
A feminine name of English origin meaning "happy" or "prosperous".
Name Census estimates that about 3,434 living Americans carry the first name Leesa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Leesa today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leesa births was 1956 (318 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leesa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Leesa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.4K
~ 1 in 99,812 Americans
Peak year
1956
318 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2017 SSA rank
#15,151
Tracked since 1946
Census
Leesa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,922 people with the first name Leesa, which placed it at #4,663 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#4,663
National first-name rank
People counted
3.9K
3,922 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leesa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leesa is White at 82.9%. The next largest groups are Black (5.7%) and Hispanic (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Leesa described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Leesa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.9% · 3,253
- Black or African American5.7% · 222
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 185
- Two or more races3.7% · 147
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 83
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 32
Popularity
Leesa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leesa from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 1,439 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leesa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Leesa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leesas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Leesa, while New Mexico, Maryland, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 63 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leesa
The name Leesa is believed to have its origins in the ancient Germanic languages, specifically from the Old High German word "lios," which means "gentle" or "mild." This name was particularly popular during the Middle Ages in German-speaking regions of Europe.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Leesa can be found in the writings of the 9th-century German monk and scholar, Rabanus Maurus, who mentioned a woman named Leesa in his work "De Universo." This suggests that the name was already in use by that time.
In the 12th century, a noblewoman named Leesa von Staufen, who was a member of the influential Staufen dynasty, is mentioned in various historical records from that period. She was known for her charitable works and her support of the arts and literature.
During the 16th century, the name Leesa gained popularity in the Netherlands and other parts of the Low Countries. One notable bearer of the name was Leesa van der Noot, a Dutch painter and engraver who was active in the early 1600s and renowned for her landscape paintings.
In the 18th century, Leesa Schönefeld, a German composer and musician, gained recognition for her compositions and performances. She was born in 1743 and was a prominent figure in the musical circles of her time.
Another famous Leesa in history was Leesa Garrido, a Spanish activist and writer who lived from 1876 to 1956. She was a pioneer in the fight for women's rights and played a significant role in the early feminist movements in Spain.
While the name Leesa has Germanic roots, it has also been adopted and used in various other cultures and languages over time, albeit with slight variations in spelling and pronunciation. However, the core meaning of the name, which is associated with gentleness and mildness, has remained consistent across different regions and time periods.
People
Leesa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leesa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Leesa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leesa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,434 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leesa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 99,812 US residents.
Is Leesa a common name?
We classify Leesa as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,124 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leesa most popular?
The single biggest year for Leesa was 1956, when 318 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leesa is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leesa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,922 people with the name Leesa, or 1.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,663 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Leesa in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Leesa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leesa appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,931 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Leesa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leesa is White at 82.9%. The next largest groups are Black (5.7%) and Hispanic (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Leesa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leesa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.9% (3,253 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Leesa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leesa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leesa in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Leesa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leesa in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Leesa can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Leesa?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.