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Leshawn vs Leslie

American parents have registered 383,418 Leslies since 1880, against 1,118 Leshawns. Leslie is still ahead, with 425 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Leshawn against Leslie, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Leshawn Leslie

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

Leslie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2015, when Leshawn had 16 and Leslie had 936.

Side by side

  Leshawn Leslie
Total US births 1,118383,418
Most in one year 448,199
Babies in 2025 6425
Estimated living today 1,100292,000
Median age today 3852
Peak year 19761957
Best rank 1,828th boys77th girls
Rank in 2025 10,695th712th
First recorded 19641880
Girls / boys 312 / 806270,429 / 112,989

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 Leslies alive today are over 52; half the Leshawns are over 38. That is 14 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: Leshawn and Leslie.