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Lesa vs Lesslie

American parents have registered 11,421 Lesas since 1880, against 641 Lesslies. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lesa against Lesslie, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lesa Lesslie

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 94 years in which either name was published, Lesa for 59 years and Lesslie for 35 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Lesa Lesslie
Total US births 11,421641
Most in one year 77827
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 10,000510
Median age today 6125
Peak year 19622002
Best rank 340th girls4,498th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19151915
Girls / boys 11,409 / 12499 / 142

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 Lesas alive today are over 61; half the Lesslies are over 25. That is 36 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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