Leslee
A feminine diminutive of Leslie, meaning "garden of holly, gray fortress".
Name Census estimates that about 4,095 living Americans carry the first name Leslee. It is a predominantly female name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Leslee today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leslee births was 1957 (126 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leslee. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Leslee is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 96 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
4.1K
~ 1 in 83,701 Americans
Peak year
1957
126 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2000 SSA rank
#11,470
Tracked since 1922
Census
Leslee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,488 people with the first name Leslee, which placed it at #4,235 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
#4,235
National first-name rank
People counted
4.5K
4,488 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leslee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leslee is White at 81.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.6%) and Black (4.5%). 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 Leslee 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 Leslee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.8% · 3,673
- Hispanic or Latino8.6% · 388
- Black or African American4.5% · 204
- Two or more races2.8% · 124
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 66
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 33
Gender
Gender distribution for Leslee
Leslee leans heavily female at 98.1% of total registrations, but 96 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Leslee as a male name
- Ranked #11,470 in 2000
- 5 male births in 2000
- Peak: 1978 (10 births)
Leslee as a female name
- Ranked #12,850 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (126 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leslee leans strongly female. 4,331 people counted with this name were female (96.4%), compared with 161 male bearers (3.6%).
Popularity
Leslee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leslee from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 1,058 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leslee 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 Leslee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leslees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Leslee, while Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 75 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leslee
The name Leslee originated as a variation of the French name Leslie, which itself derived from the Old Breton name Lezri. This name traces its roots back to the 7th century and the ancient Brittonic language spoken in parts of what is now France and Great Britain.
Lezri is thought to have evolved from the Celtic elements "les" meaning courtyard or mansion, and "ri" meaning king or prince. Thus, the original meaning of Lezri was likely something akin to "prince of the court" or "mansion ruler." Over time, the name morphed into spellings like Lessillieth and eventually Leslie.
One of the earliest known records of the name Leslie appears in the 11th century Domesday Book, a great census commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. An individual named Lesceline is listed as a landholder in Lincolnshire, England around this time.
In the 12th century, the Scottish clan Leslie emerged as a powerful noble family, their name derived from the lands of Leslie in Aberdeenshire. Notable members include Sir Andrew Leslie (c. 1380-1480), a military commander who fought for the Scottish crown.
The variant spelling Leslee first appeared in the 16th century, though it remained quite rare for several hundred years. One early bearer was Leslee Fayre (1553-1612), an English landowner and magistrate in Gloucestershire.
In the 19th century, American writer Leslee Woodworth Frost (1857-1937) helped popularize the name through her literary works. Other historically significant figures include British actress Leslee Lee Smith (1892-1968) and American baseball player Leslee Freye (1905-1987).
While less common than the standard Leslie, Leslee maintained a distinct identity as a feminine given name. Notable examples from the 20th century include Canadian author Leslee Lusk (1908-1986), British actress Leslee Martin (1914-2012), and American singer Leslee McGregor (1923-2010).
People
Leslee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leslee 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
Leslee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leslee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,095 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leslee 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 83,701 US residents.
Is Leslee a common name?
We classify Leslee as "Rare". It ranks above 96.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,001 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leslee most popular?
The single biggest year for Leslee was 1957, when 126 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leslee is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leslee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,488 people with the name Leslee, or 1.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,235 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 Leslee 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 Leslee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leslee leans strongly female. 4,331 people counted with this name were female (96.4%), compared with 161 male bearers (3.6%). 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 Leslee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leslee is White at 81.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.6%) and Black (4.5%). 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 Leslee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leslee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.8% (3,673 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 Leslee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leslee a female name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Leslee 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 Leslee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leslee 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 Leslee 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 people are called Leslee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.