Lei
Lei is a girl's name that peaked in 1960, when it was the 2,369th most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 14,942nd. About 590 Leis are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 54.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Lei boys named Lei
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 683
- Estimated living today
- 590
- Median age today
- 54
- Peak year
- 1960
- Best rank
- 2,369th
- Rank in 2025
- 14,942nd
- First recorded
- 1937
- Girls / boys
- 652 / 31
How old the living Leis are
born that year still alive today
Of the 683 babies given the name since 1937, about 590 are alive — 87 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1971 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Notable Leis
- Lei Jun (born 1969)Chinese businessman, cofounder and CEO of Xiaomi
- Wu Lei (born 1991)Chinese footballer
- Lei Feng (1940–1962)Chinese soldier and communist icon
- Lei Clijsters (1956–2009)Belgian association football player
- Wang Lei (born 1981)fencer
- Cao Lei (born 1983)weightlifter
- Kou Lei (born 1987)Ukrainian table tennis player
- Gao Lei (born 1992)Chinese trampoline gymnast
People named Lei with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Lei is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Lei is most concentrated in Hawaii (250.0×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1960
The most popular girls’ names the year Lei peaked:
Lei elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales boys | Lei | 26 | 2,870th |
| England and Wales girls | Lei | 7 | 4,524th |
| Belgium boys | Lei | 5 | 1,383rd |
| France boys | Lei | 5 | 4,958th |
| France girls | Lei | 5 | 6,995th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Lei: rank by region
In 2015, Lei was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Lei | 865 | 5 |
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Lei among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland girls | Lei | 17 | 30 |
| Finland boys | Lei | 10 | 13 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Lei lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 381 men called Lei and 175 women called Lei were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Men: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | Lei | 110 | 0.038 | 1,392 |
| Madrid | Lei | 97 | 0.028 | 1,721 |
| Valencia/València | Lei | 32 | 0.024 | 2,063 |
| Tarragona | Lei | 9 | 0.021 | 2,332 |
| Balears, Illes | Lei | 12 | 0.019 | 2,707 |
| Toledo | Lei | 7 | 0.018 | 2,083 |
Listed in 15 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 37 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Women: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | Lei | 48 | 0.016 | 2,652 |
| Madrid | Lei | 47 | 0.013 | 3,111 |
| Balears, Illes | Lei | 7 | 0.011 | 3,846 |
| Málaga | Lei | 10 | 0.011 | 3,435 |
| Valencia/València | Lei | 10 | 0.007 | 4,666 |
Listed in 5 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 47 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Lei against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.