Nancylee
Combination of the feminine name Nancy and the name suffix lee.
Name Census estimates that about 151 living Americans carry the first name Nancylee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nancylee today is around 78 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nancylee births was 1940 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nancylee. 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
- • The typical person named Nancylee is about 78 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Nancylees were born before 1958.
People living today
151
~ 1 in 2,269,896 Americans
Peak year
1940
25 babies that year
Average age
78
years old
1969 SSA rank
#8,276
Tracked since 1927
Census
Nancylee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 464 people with the first name Nancylee, which placed it at #21,757 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
#21,757
National first-name rank
People counted
464
464 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nancylee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nancylee is White at 90.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.1%) and Two or More Races (2.4%). 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 Nancylee 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 Nancylee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.7% · 421
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 19
- Two or more races2.4% · 11
- Black or African American1.7% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Nancylee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nancylee from the 1920s through to the 1960s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 172 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nancylee 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 Nancylee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nancylees live
Origin
Meaning and history of Nancylee
The name Nancylee is a combination of two distinct names, Nancy and Lee. Nancy is a feminine given name derived from the Old French name Annice, which in turn originated from the Germanic name Annis. The name Annis is thought to be a pet form of the Frankish name Radanis, which means "having awesome counsels."
The name Nancy gained popularity in England during the Middle Ages, and it was often used as a diminutive form of names like Ann or Anne. The name Lee, on the other hand, is an English name that is derived from the Old English word "leah," meaning a meadow or woodland clearing.
While the combination of Nancy and Lee into Nancylee is relatively modern, there are historical references to both names separately. For instance, the name Nancy appears in the 14th-century Middle English poem "The Romaunt of the Rose," written by Geoffrey Chaucer.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Nancy can be found in the records of the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland from the year 1296, which mentions a woman named Nancie del Lye. Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Nancy, such as Nancy Astor (1879-1964), the first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons.
Another famous Nancy was Nancy Reagan (1921-2016), the wife of former US President Ronald Reagan. In literature, the name Nancy is associated with the character of Nancy from Charles Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist," published in 1838.
As for the name Lee, it has been used as a given name for both men and women throughout history. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Lee can be found in the Domesday Book, a great survey of England completed in 1086 under the order of William the Conqueror.
Notable individuals with the name Lee include Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), the famous Confederate general during the American Civil War, and Harper Lee (1926-2016), the author of the acclaimed novel "To Kill a Mockingbird."
While the combination of Nancy and Lee into Nancylee is relatively modern and less common than either name individually, it is a unique and memorable name with a rich historical background.
People
Nancylee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nancylee as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nancylee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nancylee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 151 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nancylee 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 2,269,896 US residents.
Is Nancylee a common name?
We classify Nancylee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 387 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nancylee most popular?
The single biggest year for Nancylee was 1940, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nancylee is about 78 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nancylee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 464 people with the name Nancylee, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,757 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 Nancylee 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 Nancylee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nancylee appears almost entirely female. Of the 469 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Nancylee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nancylee is White at 90.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.1%) and Two or More Races (2.4%). 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 Nancylee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nancylee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.7% (421 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 Nancylee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nancylee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nancylee 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 Nancylee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nancylee 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 Nancylee 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 have Nancylee as a first name?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Nancylee at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.