Humanverse

Leelan vs Leesa

American parents have registered 4,124 Leesas since 1880, against 554 Leelans. But in 2025 it was Leelan that was commoner, 17 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Leelan against Leesa, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Leelan Leesa

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 80 years in which either name was published, Leesa for 60 years and Leelan for 20 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Leelan Leesa
Total US births 5544,124
Most in one year 44318
Babies in 2025 17under 5
Estimated living today 5503,700
Median age today 1159
Peak year 20151956
Best rank 2,722nd boys525th girls
Rank in 2025 5,399thunranked
First recorded 20051946
Girls / boys 0 / 5544,124 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Leesas alive today are over 59; half the Leelans are over 11. That is 48 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Leelan Leesa
England and Wales 1023

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Leelan and Leesa.