Humanverse

Leslee vs Lesly

American parents have registered 15,785 Leslys since 1880, against 5,001 Leslees. Lesly is still ahead, with 149 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Leslee against Lesly, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Leslee Lesly

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 98 years in which either name was published, Leslee for 53 years and Lesly for 45 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Leslee Lesly
Total US births 5,00115,785
Most in one year 126847
Babies in 2025 under 5149
Estimated living today 4,40015,000
Median age today 5321
Peak year 19572003
Best rank 907th girls364th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,443rd
First recorded 19221919
Girls / boys 4,905 / 9615,281 / 504

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 Leslees alive today are over 53; half the Leslys are over 21. That is 32 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: Leslee and Lesly.