Amberlee
Feminine · “amber”
Amber did not start out as tree resin. The Arabic word anbar means ambergris, the waxy grey substance from a whale that perfumers prize. Medieval Europe borrowed the word, then applied it to the golden fossil resin that washes up on the Baltic shore, and the whale quietly dropped out of it.
How old is the name Amberlee?
Amberlee first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Amberlee alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 2,000 people named Amberlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amberlee most popular?
Amberlee peaked in 1983, reaching #1798 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 9,119 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From anbar to Amberlee
The story of Amberlee
Two things had to happen before Amberlee was possible. The first is that amber became a color word and then a name, which took several centuries and one substitution of substance: anbar named ambergris, and Europeans transferred the word to fossil resin. The second is that American parents began treating -lee, -leigh and -ly as a suffix rather than a syllable, free to be attached to anything. Kimberly arrived from a South African diamond town named for a British earl, and was heard as Kim plus an ending; once the ending was loose it went everywhere. Amberlee is one result, and Amberly, Amberleigh and Amberlie are spellings of it rather than separate names.
Meaning
amber, with the Old English leah, a woodland clearing
A modern American compound whose two parts are both documented. Amber comes through French and Latin from Arabic anbar. The -lee ending is the Old English leah, a clearing in woodland, the commonest single element in English place names and the source of the surnames behind Ashley, Bradley and Kimberly. The compound is twentieth-century; the elements are much older.
How the name formed
- anbar
- ambra
- amber
- Amber
- Amberlee
Pronouncing Amberlee
AM-ber-lee
Three syllables with the stress firmly on the first. The last syllable is unstressed, which is why it can be written -lee, -ly, -leigh or -lie without changing anything you can hear.
Nicknames for Amberlee
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 199165 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1798reached in 1983
- Change vs 2024
- −61.9%8 in 2025, from 21
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Amberlee in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Amberlees among us
people named Amberlee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Amberlee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Phylliss test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Amberlee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Phylliss climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Phylliss's path sketches the road Amberlee is walking now.
Amberlee sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Amberlee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Amberlee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both parts are ordinary English words, so nobody has to be taught the sound.
- Amber works as a short form and stands alone as a name.
- The elements have documented meanings, which most compounds cannot offer.
- Four spellings compete and none is standard, so it will be spelled out every time.
- Most people will shorten it to Amber and stop there.
- The -lee compounds belong to a particular stretch of American naming and carry that period with them.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Amberlee to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Amberlee? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Amberlee
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Amberlees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Amberlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Amberlee in 2025?
- Amberlee ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Amberlee?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Amberlee — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Amberlee with classmates?
- Amberlee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Amberlee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amberlee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Amberlee and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle